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Postural adjustments involve displacements of the center of mass (COM), controlled by the central nervous system (CNS), to maintain equilibrium whilst standing. Postural adjustments can be anticipatory (APAs) or compensatory (CPAs), and are triggered to counteract predictable perturbations.Is the new smartphone application, Momentum, a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of body balance, by measuring APAs and CPAs using accelerometer readings?20 young adults were exposed to external predictable perturbations induced at the shoulder level, whilst standing. COM linear acceleration was recorded by Momentum (extracting data from a smartphone's accelerometer) and a 3D motion capture system.The key results demonstrated a very high, significant correlation (r ≥ 0.7, p 0.05) between the two device settings in the APA parametersThese experiments show that Momentum is a valid method for measuring COM acceleration under predictable perturbations and is reliable for compensatory events.

The school is a privileged space for the introduction of eating and hygiene habits that are potentially favorable to oral health literacy. However, despite several interventions for this purpose, oral diseases remain a global public health problem. One of the reasons is the implementation failure. Objective: This study intends to map the implementation of interventions aimed at oral health literacy aimed at children enrolled in kindergarten and in the first year. Methods: We intend to carry out a scoping review following the recommendations contained in the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis for scoping reviews. The following data sources will be accessed: MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, Eric, CINAHL/EBSCO, and Redalyc. The terms used will be related to the implementation of an intervention to promote oral health literacy in preschool and in the first school cycle. Primary studies in English, Portuguese and Spanish from 1996 will be included, focusing on literacy in oral health and with at least one of the proposed pillars for Health Promoting Schools. The references of the identified articles will be examined to verify possible studies that were not captured in the searched databases. Gray literature will also be consulted. For the extraction of texts, the RE-AIM framework adapted for systematic reviews will be used. The results will be described quantitatively and qualitatively through percentage and thematic analysis, respectively. Expected results: It is expected to map the implementation of interventions aimed at literacy in oral health in the context of the health promoting school and, with that, identify possibilities for improvements.

When designing scaffolds for bone tissue engineering (BTE), the wall shear stress (WSS), due to the fluid flow inside the scaffold, is an important factor to consider as it influences the cellular process involved in new tissue formation. The present work analyzed the average WSS in Schwartz diamond (SD) and gyroid (SG) scaffolds with different surface topologies and mesh elements using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. It was found that scaffold meshes with a smooth surface topology with tetrahedral elements had WSS levels 35% higher than the equivalent scaffold with a non-smooth surface topology with hexahedral elements. The present work also investigated the possibility of implementing the optimization algorithm simulated annealing to aid in the design of BTE scaffolds with a specific average WSS, with the outputs showing that the algorithm was able to reach WSS levels in the vicinity of 5 mPa (physiological range) within the established limit of 100 iterations. This proved the efficacy of combining CFD and optimization methods in the design of BTE scaffolds.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the long-term riders’ subjective responses to a standardized bikefitting method on their bicycles. Eighty-six amateur mountain bikers had their riding posture and bicycle components ergonomically adjusted through a 3D kinematic bikefitting method. Validated subjective scales (Feeling, OMNI, and Numerical Rating Pain Scale) were used to assess their overall riding comfort and fatigue along with localized pain for six body parts. Data were collected just before intervention (baseline or pre), immediately after (or post), and 30, 60, 90, and 120 days after the bikefit session. A Student’s t-test comparing before bikefit and after 120 days showed significant (p < 0.05) reduction in localized pain for all six body parts and riding comfort along with a large effect size effect (d = 1.18) for riding comfort. Although initially reduced, fatigue scores gradually increased over the months, showing a high correlation (r = 0.946) with increased monthly training volume. In conclusion, overall riding discomfort and pain were significantly decreased after a standardized kinematic bikefit session even after 120 days post intervention. However, fatigue scores began to rise after 30 days, showing a high correlation with increasing monthly training volume.

Since the dawn of mobile communication systems, reducing the cell size has been one option to increase the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) in both links. The impact of this reduction can be perfectly understood by considering Shannon’s law. This work studies in detail the performance of Home eNBs (HeNBs), nodes with a smaller coverage area. After a detailed theoretical study of the SINR, a simulation approach is used to extract performance results in small cell indoor scenarios. Results corresponding to the goodput, delay and packet loss ratio are analyzed. Based on an improved version of LTE-Sim, the proportional fair, frame level scheduler (FLS) and exponential rule are tested in an indoor environment. With the saturation conditions taken into consideration, the FLS performs better than the other schedulers. This work shows that with the considered applications, it is possible to achieve a reduction in the transmitter power of HeNBs without compromising the small cell network performance., This work was supported by Foundation for Science and Technology/Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (FCT/MCTES) through national funds and, when applicable, co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020, COST CA 15104 Inclusive Radio Communication Networks for 5G and Beyond (IRACON), Optical Radio Convergence Infrastructure for Communications and Power Delivering (ORCIP, 22141-01/SAICT/2016), TeamUp5G and CONQUEST (CMU/ECE/0030/2017). The TeamUp5G project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project number 813391.

To investigate the effects of bike fitting compared to qualitative-based riding posture recommendations on comfort, fatigue, and pain in amateur cyclists. This was a randomised controlled parallel trial of 162 amateur cyclists divided into two groups: bike fitting group (BFG)–participants received a bike fitting session based on 3D kinematic assessments; and a control group (QG)–participants who received a handout containing qualitative-based cycling posture recommendations. Primary outcomes were perceived comfort (FEEL Scale), perceived fatigue (OMNI Scale), and perceived pain (numeric rating pain scale, NRPS). Outcomes were assessed at baseline, when the interventions were delivered, and after 15 days. Intention-to-treat analyses were conducted using student t-tests between pre and post intervention on both groups. All dependent variables from BFG displayed significant statistical difference between both groups post-intervention (p < 0.05). FEEL Scale and OMNI Scale results showed the highest changes of all variables under analysis (mean differences of 3.12 and 3.95 points, respectively); while the body parts with more reduction in riding pain were Groin and Back (mean differences of 1.68 and 1.35, respectively). In conclusion, 3D kinematic bikefit demonstrated superior improvements over riding pain, comfort and fatigue compared to qualitative riding posture recommendations.

Bone injuries or defects that require invasive surgical treatment are a serious clinical issue, particularly when it comes to treatment success and effectiveness. Accordingly, bone tissue engineering (BTE) has been researching the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools to assist in designing optimal scaffolds that better promote bone growth and repair. This paper aims to offer a comprehensive review of recent studies that use CFD analysis in BTE. The mechanical and fluidic properties of a given scaffold are coupled to each other via the scaffold architecture, meaning an optimization of one may negatively affect the other. For example, designs that improve scaffold permeability normally result in a decreased average wall shear stress. Linked with these findings, it appears there are very few studies in this area that state a specific application for their scaffolds and those that do are focused on in vitro bioreactor environments. Finally, this review also demonstrates a scarcity of studies that combine CFD with optimization methods to improve scaffold design. This highlights an important direction of research for the development of the next generation of BTE scaffolds.

ObjectiveTo analyse rider’s subjective responses after a standardised bicycle ergonomic adjustment method.MethodsExperimental study of 160 healthy, amateur mountain bikers analysed previously and 30 days after a bike-fitting session. The main outcome measures were subjective comfort level (Feeling Scale, FEEL), fatigue (OMINI Scale) and pain (Visual Analogue Scale, VAS).ResultsAll variables demonstrated statistical significance between groups pre and post bike-fit session (pConclusionsOverall discomfort, fatigue and pain in healthy mountain biker adults improved according to all three scales. The major improvements in pain levels were detected on the knee, hands, back and neck compared with presession values. Groin and ankle pain had smaller improvements but were still significant. Future clinical trials should address the bias effects of this experimental study.

Bone injuries or defects that require invasive surgical treatment are a serious clinical issue, particularly when it comes to treatment success and effectiveness. Accordingly, bone tissue engineering (BTE) has been researching the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools to assist in designing optimal scaffolds that better promote bone growth and repair. This paper aims to offer a comprehensive review of recent studies that use CFD analysis in BTE. The mechanical and fluidic properties of a given scaffold are coupled to each other via the scaffold architecture, meaning an optimization of one may negatively affect the other. For example, designs that improve scaffold permeability normally result in a decreased average wall shear stress. Linked with these findings, it appears there are very few studies in this area that state a specific application for their scaffolds and those that do are focused on in vitro bioreactor environments. Finally, this review also demonstrates a scarcity of studies that combine CFD with optimization methods to improve scaffold design. This highlights an important direction of research for the development of the next generation of BTE scaffolds.

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica na Área de Energia, Refrigeração e Climatização Submitted by Isabel Melo (imelo@sa.isel.pt) on 2021-09-17T08:19:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 19149151 bytes, checksum: fb128484f3a7439b9c7c9cf5a544eee1 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T08:19:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 19149151 bytes, checksum: fb128484f3a7439b9c7c9cf5a544eee1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-07-14 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Background: Kinematic analysis aimed toward scientific investigation or professional purposes is commonly unaffordable and complex to use. Objective: The purpose of this study was to verify concurrent validation between a cycling-specific 3D camera and the gold-standard 3D general camera systems. Methods: Overall, 11 healthy amateur male triathletes were filmed riding their bicycles with Vicon 3D cameras and the Retul 3D cameras for bike fitting analysis simultaneously. All 18 kinematic measurements given by the bike fitting system were compared with the same data given by Vicon cameras through Pearson correlation (r), intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), standard error measurements (SEM), and Bland–Altman (BA) analysis. Confidence intervals of 95% are given. Results: A very high correlation between cameras was found on six of 18 measurements. All other presented a high correlation between cameras (between 0.7 and 0.9). In total, six variables indicate a SEM of less than one degree between systems. Only two variables indicate a SEM higher than two degrees between camera systems. Overall, four measures indicate bias tendency according to BA. Conclusions: The cycling-specific led-emitting 3D camera system tested revealed a high or very high degree of correlation with the gold-standard 3D camera system used in laboratory motion capture. In total, 14 measurements of this equipment could be used in sports medicine clinical practice and even by researchers of cycling studies.