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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/020 • AppSaúde: Empoderar para melhor viver

competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, Outros, viseu /

Principal Researcher: Manuela Ferreira
Duration: 2020 – 2022

Cised team members
Carlos Quental

Funding
CGD; PV

Knowledge about the health of the Portuguese population has improved significantly, however, young people require particular attention in relation to the determinants of health related to lifestyle. Scientific evidence of school health promotion, innovation and the need to refocus action on results implies the development of more appropriate interventions for the young population. In addition to empowering people and communities to act, it implies recognizing their skills and potential and facilitating their choices. Integrating a broad vision, the AppSaúde: Empower to better live project is created, with the purpose of improving the levels of health literacy of young adults in the central zone of the country. It integrates three specific areas: food, additive consumption and sexuality. The objectives are: to develop an instrument to evaluate the level of literacy of students of higher education in the areas of food, additive consumption and sexuality; monitor health determinants in these areas, and develop a web-based platform that includes a health education program and a forum for the exchange of ideas between students and professionals. The plan for dissemination of results and dissemination of knowledge is in line with the broad territorial scope and corresponds to the domains of health and technologies applied to health.
The impact of the scientific and technological knowledge generated by the project when disseminated will contribute to the regional and national valorization, in a logic of knowledge translation.
This study will be developed by a team with elements that have already carried out other projects in this area. This team, now reinforced by the involvement of 1st and 2nd cycle IPV students, is a guarantee of the success of IPV research and dissemination at national and international level.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/002 • Sistema Inteligente de Controlo de Planos Alimentares para Doentes de Alzheimer e Outras Demências

[CDS] Connected Digital Society, concluído, interno, não competitivo, não financiado, viseu /

Principal Researcher: Carlos Augusto Cunha
Duration: 2020 – 2022

Cised team members
Valter Alves
Rui Pedro Duarte

Funding
CGD; PV

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive loss of mental function, characterized by degeneration of brain tissue, including loss of nerve cells, accumulation of an abnormal protein, and development of neurofibrillary braids. Alzheimer's patients become dependent on other people, even for the most basic tasks. Controlling feeding and hydrating an Alzheimer's patient is thus a crucial task performed by the person who supports their daily routine, called Informal Caregiver (IC).

Conditions of malnutrition, super nutrition, and dehydration are common in people with diseases causing dementia since the loss of their autonomy also manifests itself in the level of their inability to demonstrate food needs. The support of a nutritionist in the preparation and follow-up of a food plan aligned with the needs of the patient is, therefore, fundamental. The monitoring of the food plan is undoubtedly a process that demands from Cl a lot of discipline and the ability to deal with possible circumstantial adaptations, such as replacing foods prescribed in the food plan with other equivalents or changing the quantity of water consumed as a function of ambient temperature.

This project addresses the problem of the creation and monitoring of diet plans in patients with dementia such as Alzheimer's, through the creation of a computer solution. It allows the creation of nutritional plans by the nutritionists using a Web application and the follow-up of these plans by the ICs through an app to significantly increase the quality of life of the patient. The mobile app will be able to send to the CI notifications regarding proper nutrition and hydration in due moments, accompanied by the control of hydration using an intelligent water bottle, will allow ensuring the compliance of the indications of the nutritionist. Besides, the application will suggest alternatives to plan foods if they are unavailable. Another central feature of the solution is the dynamic adaptation of water administration to the patient as a function of the environmental conditions automatically collected by temperature and humidity sensors.

In scientific terms, the project includes the creation of innovative models for adapting food plans using machine learning algorithms and integration approaches, preprocessing and evaluation of data quality collected by external sensors.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/005 • iPV with Health Plus: Dinâmicas e estratégias de inclusão para a promoção e literacia em saúde no ensino superior

[DDSS] Digital Decision Support Systems, competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Carlos Albuquerque
Duration: 2020 – 2022

CISeD
Team Members
Isabel Paula Lopes Brás

Funding
CGD; PV

This transdisciplinary research and action project foresees the development of innovative health promotion strategies based on a salutogenic paradigm that seeks to empower people to manage their health resources and improve their health literacy. This study is also part of a local need which was identified and discussed by and with local stakeholders (health professionals and the academic community) in the absence of an inclusive, creative, dynamic and concerted strategy to promote salutogenic behaviours among the student of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV – Instituto Politécnico de Viseu).

Attending to the experience of the research team in the conception and implementation of health promotion programs and technological solutions applied to health care, it becomes an opportunity to network and gather synergies between several partners among the clinical and teaching fields as well as in research, enhancing IPV in its social responsibilities.

The main objective of the "iPV with Health Plus" project is to develop, implement and evaluate an integrated and institutional health promotion program, creating the resources and organizational structures to support these processes along with the IPV students.

This project is structured with ten complementary tasks and it is aligned with the recommendations and challenges embodied in our current National Health Plan, based on the international guidelines, which emphasises a system of epidemiological surveillance of health determinants, reinforcing the organizational strategies and institutional culture in the field of health. Thus, the iPV Health+ project is supported by a strong networking among higher education institutions and primary health care institutions and it will monitor the health determinants of IPV students, assess their health needs, create an Observatory of the State of Health of the Students of the IPV and conceive a Group of Health Promotion with an integrated, multidisciplinary and multidimensional action in the field of health promotion among the students of the IPV. Considering this, the research team will also develop and evaluate an innovative and inclusive intervention program that, through the use of interactive technologies (app), will promote health literacy and healthy behaviours, according to a structured approach.

The impact expectations of this project clearly outperform issues related to the scientific production and dissemination of knowledge. Its intention is to contribute in a sustained, inclusive and lasting way to the conception and implementation of organizational responses, those focused on the promotion of salutogenic behaviours and also to create technological interfaces and structures that can streamline monitoring, intervention and follow-up procedures of the IPV students according to their health needs as levelling the institution into a national reference.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/019 • WASTECLEAN – Integração de desperdícios agroalimentares ricos em compostos fitoquímicos e bioativos numa agricultura

[CDS] Connected Digital Society, [DDSS] Digital Decision Support Systems, competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
José Luís Pereira
Duration: 2020 – 2022

Cised team members
Isabel Paula Lopes Brás
Maria Elisabete Ferreira Silva
Rui Pedro Duarte

Funding
CGD; PV

In the last decade sustainable agriculture has gained emphasis. For the development of this type of agriculture i tis necessary to look for agricultural practices that allow to improve the production and to reduce the negative impact on the environment. One of these practices is to reuse biowaste from agro-food production. Many of these residues are rich in phytochemical compounds (lignins, celluloses, hemicelluloses, polyphenols) which, when added to the soil, can improve it. However, the direct application of these residues to the soil can often induce toxicity problems, such as polyphenol-rich residues. Composting is a practice that can solve this problem. However, the composting process is also associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), although this GHG emission is very dependent on the physical-chemical characteristics of the materials being composted.

Another biowaste of the agri-food production are the animal manures, particularly liquid slurry, that when applied directly to the soil can induce contaminations. Through this, high amounts of antibiotic resistant genes are released to the soil (and subsequently to the plants) and there is also the presence of hepatitis virus E. One way to value these slurries could be by applying carbonaceous (biochar), as it is indicated that the application of biochar could reduce amounts of these microbiological agents that could be transferred to the environment.

Thus, in the present project the main agricultural biowaste of the region (grape smash, olive branch and pruning) will be characterized according to the quantity of polyphenols, tannins, celluloses and hemicelluloses. The evolution of these compounds throughout the composting process will be also evaluated as well as the GHG emission and its relation with the chemical composition of the materials. The effect of applying the compost to the soil will be analysed in the development and production of a horticultural crop.

As a national region rich in animal production, it is also important to exploit the resulting biowaste, including the use of manure. It is imperative to use sanitary practices of the slurries to avoid soil contamination. Thus, we propose to evaluate the effect of biochar as a sanitation practice and at the same time evaluate its effectiveness in reducing GHG emissions.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/013 • FZ – Farinha de zângão: Inovar no produto e na proteção da colmeia

competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, Outros, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Cristina Isabel Amaro da Costa
Duration: 2019 – 2022

Cised team members
Bruno Morgado Ferreira
Pedro Manuel Reis
José Luís Abrantes

Funding
CGD; PV

The production of insects has been playing an increasingly important role in obtaining alternative sources of protein for animal and human feeding. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognizes the use of insects as a sustainable alternative to animal production and recommends the use of insects as a source of nutrients for animals and humans since 2010. In Portugal, the insect production sector has been growing, and in addition to traditional beekeeping, there have been some initiatives to produce insects for animal and human consumption, using cricket or mealworm beetle.

Currently, bee and beekeeping survival depends critically on the proper management of the diseases that affect it, in particular varroosis, an endemic disease in Portugal that causes serious economic damage. Although in recent years this disease has been subject to official control, using chemical control methods, there are also natural protection methods that can be used and that present very satisfactory results, as is the case of the technique of drone brood removal. This technique consists in the placement of frames with molded wax with drone alveoli in the nest, preferred targets of the mite and its removal when the alveoli are operculated. Drone brood removed by this technique have so far no use, but can be harvested for food and constitute another source of income for the hive.

One way to harness the brood larvae will be through the production of flour with high protein content of animal origin, rich in fibers and micronutrients such as copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc that can be used in the manufacture of bread, similar to what is already done with cricket or mealworm beetle.

Uma forma de aproveitamento das larvas de zângão será através da produção de farinha com elevado teor de proteína de origem animal, rica em fibras e micronutrientes como cobre, ferro, magnésio, manganês, fósforo e zinco que poderá ser utilizada no fabrico de pão, à semelhança do que já é feito com o grilo ou o tenébrio.

In addition to the technical factors that can jeopardize this innovation, both in the production of bee drones and in their processing and use, it is important to understand the behavior of consumers in relation to the consumption of insects and their products, and their willingness to pay, since in Portugal, this sector is almost non- existent and the consumption of insects for human consumption is not part of the Mediterranean diet.

The 'FZ – Drone Brood Flour: Innovative product and hive protection' project has the following objectives: (1) contribute to reducing the damage caused by varrosis and the use of veterinary pesticides; (2) harnessing and enhancing feeding grounds, increasing the yield of the beekeeping activity and providing a set of food products based on insect meal rich in animal protein; (3) study consumer behavior in relation to consumption of insects and derived products and to evaluate the benefits to the environment and public health by estimating their willingness to pay for these products.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/025 • Da ludicidade do videojogo ao desenvolvimento comunicacional da criança com autismo

[CDS] Connected Digital Society, [DDSS] Digital Decision Support Systems, competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Valter Alves
Duration: 2019 – 2022

Cised team members
Valter Alves
Rui Pedro Duarte
Frederico Fonseca
Ana Cristina Bico Matos

Funding
CGD; PV

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects sensory processing, conditioning development of communication skills, and social interaction. Still, there are few digital tools explicitly aiming at the study this hindrance. It is well known that children with ASD are fond of technologies and videogames in particular. The predictable and constant behaviour of technological components, the visual appeal, and the challenges are often highly appreciated. Besides, videogames typically allow users to play alone, which is adequate to the profile of such an audience. The use of videogames by autistics has shown to be relevant, and studies are evidencing a correlation with superior cognitive development. Even so, existing solutions that were specifically developed for this audience have assumedly pedagogical goals, which systematically compromises their ludic dimension. In contrast, the present proposal focuses on pure playfulness and is designed to provide an advantage to players who adopt specific strategies that rely on communicating with other users. Also instrumental to the project, different scenarios are designed so that researchers can observe and collect scientific data, aiming at better understanding the related disturbances. To begin with, such scenarios support the analysis of the influence of physical proximity between the players, their prior level of familiarity, and their relative communicational abilities. Secondly, researchers will study the impact of repeating the experience, both in terms of in-game performance and regarding a possible contribution to the relationship between participants and, eventually, with third parties. It is also an objective to verify how the use of immersive virtual reality systems can impact the results in different scenarios.
The development of the videogame will resort to agile methodologies, which will allow for an incremental production, supported by recurrent tests and consistently validated according to the intended objectives. The partners in this project grant that a considerable number of users will be available both during the videogame development process and the experiments, which is highly relevant for the scientific representativeness of the observations and results.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/012 • Comunicação e sustentabilidade ambiental: Práticas das cidades e comportamentos dos públicos

[CDS] Connected Digital Society, [SWACES] Social Web Applied to Culture, Economy and Society, competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Luísa Paula Augusto
Duration: 2019 – 2022

Cised team members
Luísa Paula Augusto
Sara Santos
Suzanne Amaro

Funding
CGD; PV

The environmental responsibility has assumed a great dimension in the management and communication processes, being the object of growing concern of several entities from different sectors of activity. It is critical that organizations rethink their practices and behaviors in relation to protecting the environment. Municipalities and cities recognize the need for concern about the sustainability of cities in order to provide safe, healthy environments that do not endanger the future of citizens.

On the other hand, it is the citizens' duty to adopt more environmentally responsible behavior. The concern with sustainability and environmental responsibility, as well as the communication of the territories, of the cities, about the themes and initiatives of environmental responsibility and the green behavior of the consumers has aroused the interest of the academy, giving rise to a set of researches.

The present project aims to analyze if the cities / cities develop practices that drive sustainable behaviors and how they communicate them; realize what kind of benefits people recognize as stimulators of more sustainable behaviors in municipalities / cities and whether people already have sustainable behaviors. The aim is to analyze and compare three countries: Portugal, Czech Republic and Cape Verde and six realities: Viseu (a city with a medium population density and considered one of the best cities to live in), Lamego (second largest city in the district), Oliveira do Hospital (a city in the lower Vouga sub-region and the most sustainable in the country), Prague (European city, considered one of the 10 most sustainable cities in the world) and the municipalities of Ribeira Grande, Paul and Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão, in Cape Verde (municipalities with a project for sustainable development).

The project includes the development of studies through the analysis of the communication materials of cities / municipalities, interviews (to the municipalities and competent entities), questionnaires to the residents and tourists of the cities and municipalities under study.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/018 • Avaliação Ambiental de Produtos Sustentáveis na Indústria Transformadora de Granitos (AAPSITG)

[DDSS] Digital Decision Support Systems, competitivo, concluído, interno, nacional, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Maria Elisabete Silva
Duration: 2019 – 2022

Cised team members
Maria Elisabete Silva
Isabel Brás
José Vicente
Idalina Domingos

Funding
CGD; PV

The industry associated to construction sector have an important environmental impact, mainly associated with exhaustion of natural resources and waste production. Is a fact that mineral and others material will have an announced end in the nature in a near future. One industry related with this sector is the worktop production for integral part of kitchen and bathrooms furniture that uses minerals as raw materials. Thus, the development of sustainable products related with this production is necessary and very important for minimize environmental impact. Product sustainability (PS) looks at how products can provide economic benefits to companies while at the same time providing environmental and social benefits to society in general. The PS aims at balancing the contributions of products to the triple benefit (economy, society and environment), thereby creating multiple and shared values for different stakeholders. A general definition of a PS could be: a product designed, manufactured, used and disposed of according to criteria of economic, environmental and social efficiency, which maximize net benefits across generations by minimize the impact during the life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most important analytical tools to provide the scientific background for engineering solutions to sustainability, both during the design phase (eco-design) and during life cycle management. By applying LCA it is possible to optimize the aspects from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of waste materials. The application of LCA, not only meets consumer demands for environmentally friendly products, but also increase the productivity and competitiveness of the sustainable products. In summary, it can be stated that the application of LCA is fundamental to sustainability and improvement the sustainable products in the worktop industrial activities. This sector will be the focus of the present study and it will be done the LCA of a new worktop product, produced with wastes from traditional worktop production and compare to the traditional product. In attempting to certificate it sustainability it will be done the environmental product declaration. This product may be considered as an Eco-Product once it incorporates of wastes or subproducts in its composition. The 4 main phases of LCA methodology will be implemented, such as the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation for this new material comparing with the product traditionally produced in the collaborative factories.

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PROJ/IPV/ID&I/007 • Sistema Inteligente de Controlo de Planos Alimentares para o Desporto

[CDS] Connected Digital Society, concluído, interno, nacional, não competitivo, não financiado, viseu /

Principal Researcher:
Carlos Cunha
Duration: 2019 – 2022

Cised team members
Rui Pedro Duarte
Valter Alves

Funding
CGD; PV

The recent growth in the pursuit of sporting activities, motivated by a widespread increase in the perception of the importance of maintaining physical fitness, campaigns specifically aimed at combating physical inactivity, and opportunities created by the revelation of lesser known modalities, brought forward fundamental questions such as the correct nutrition of the practitioners. Numerous institutions involved in the practice of physical activity, which have since flourished, have been integrating these concerns into their scope, including through nutritionists.

For a nutritionist, the elaboration and monitoring of a food plan in line with the needs of the individual present two critical problems: 1) obtaining biometric data, eating habits and energy consumption to create the food plan, and 2) monitoring and the dynamic adaptation of the food plan.

Sports nutrition is one of the most complex areas of nutrition, since it requires observation of a rather comprehensive set of metrics, encompassing the athlete's physical aspects, physical activity, and eating habits. The use of measuring devices for specific parameters of physical activity represents a common practice among athletes. The integration of data automatically collected by these devices with other data not directly observable, such as dietary habits and subjective metrics, is part of the complexity of creating a global register that can be used by the nutritionist during the development of the plan to feed. Also, at a stage after the preparation of the food plan, the need to adapt it may arise. For example, variations in temperature or physical intensity may involve quick changes in the energy or hydration needs of an individual. In such situations, the data collected by the devices could be used to dynamically adjust the plan and send alerts, informing the sportsman of the need to eat food or water at the right time.

The objectives of this project include the creation of (a) a Web application where the nutritionist can record and follow up on dietary plans and (b) a mobile app for sportspersons, which can collect data provided by smart devices or manually entered, and where they can plan and receive notifications. In scientific terms, the project includes the creation of innovative models for adapting food plans using machine learning algorithms and integration approaches, preprocessing and evaluation of data quality collected by external devices.

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