| 1. |
- Carvalho, Joao, et al.
(författare)
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A drill-hole, geological and geophysical data-based 3D model for target generation in Neves-Corvo mine region, Portugal
- 2022
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Ingår i: International journal of earth sciences. - : Springer Nature. - 1437-3254 .- 1437-3262. ; 111, s. 403-424
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Neves-Corvo world class Iberian Pyrite Belt volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit located in southern Portugal, constitutes an important Cu-Zn-Pb active mine. Seven deposits are currently known, among which the Lombador deposit alone has estimated 150 Mt of massive sulphides. The life-time of the mine is dependent on the discovery of new exploration targets and it is vital to have accurate 3D geological models, not only to guide drilling campaigns but also to drive a winning/new strategy, which in the past has led to Semblana and Monte Branco discoveries: geophysical inversion and modelling. Furthermore, 3D geological models can contribute to the understanding of the tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the region. Therefore, the goal of this study is to produce a realistic 3D geological model of the Neves-Corvo region, as only one model is presently publicly available: the PROMINE model, which includes the study area of this work and extends from Aljustrel to the border with Spain. Lundin Mining has also produced two unpublished, confidential models in 2007 and 2017. The latest Lundin model incorporates the same geophysical data used in this work (2D and 3D seismic reflection and time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) ground loop data) and approximately 7500 surface and underground drill-holes. The model presented in this research has much more detail than the 2012 PROMINE model in the Neves-Corvo region and uses an updated and revised drill-hole database with approximately 8000 drill-holes, revised geological cross-sections built from surface geology and drill-hole logs, new geological outcrop data, petrophysical and reprocessed geophysical data, and is therefore more detailed and accurate than any of the previous models, in particular the 2007 and PROMINE models. Land gravimetric and aeromagnetic data are also available in the study area but were not directly used to build the geological model but rather to investigate and check the model produced. Modelling was performed with industry standard software and the 3D curves resulting from the geological/geophysical interpretation were interpolated using different approaches to respect the hard data (interpretation lines and drill-holes). The resulting 3D stratigraphic surfaces required strong manual editing to respect the interpretation, due to the presence of folds, thrusts and tectonic nappes in the study area. The surfaces were afterwards tied to the drill-holes, resulting in a 3D model with great accuracy and detail in the near mining area and covering a larger area than previously available 3D geological models. The model has three major stratigraphic layers: the Mertola Flysch Formation and the Volcano-Sedimentary Complex (VSC), overlying the Phyllite-Quartzite Formation basement, and also the known VMS deposits (underlying the top of the Lower VSC) geometries according to drill-hole data. In the central part of the study area, where more drill-holes are available, the top of the Lower VSC sequence surface was also built. This approach will contribute to a better exploration drill-hole planning and the generation of new targets for exploration.
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| 2. |
- Neves, Ana Luisa, et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of the Use of Health and Fitness Mobile Apps by Patients With Asthma : Secondary Analysis of Observational Studies
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Internet Research. - : JMIR Publications. - 1438-8871. ; 23:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Health and fitness apps have potential benefits to improve self-management and disease control among patients with asthma. However, inconsistent use rates have been reported across studies, regions, and health systems. A better understanding of the characteristics of users and nonusers is critical to design solutions that are effectively integrated in patients' daily lives, and to ensure that these equitably reach out to different groups of patients, thus improving rather than entrenching health inequities. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the use of general health and fitness apps by patients with asthma and to identify determinants of usage. Methods: A secondary analysis of the INSPIRERS observational studies was conducted using data from face-to-face visits. Patients with a diagnosis of asthma were included between November 2017 and August 2020. Individual-level data were collected, including age, gender, marital status, educational level, health status, presence of anxiety and depression, postcode, socioeconomic level, digital literacy, use of health services, and use of health and fitness apps. Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the probability of being a health and fitness app user. Statistical analysis was performed in R. Results: A total of 526 patients attended a face-to-face visit in the 49 recruiting centers and 514 had complete data. Most participants were <= 40 years old (66.4%), had at least 10 years of education (57.4%), and were in the 3 higher quintiles of the socioeconomic deprivation index (70.1%). The majority reported an overall good health status (visual analogue scale [VAS] score>70 in 93.1%) and the prevalence of anxiety and depression was 34.3% and 11.9%, respectively. The proportion of participants who reported using health and fitness mobile apps was 41.1% (n=211). Multivariate models revealed that single individuals and those with more than 10 years of education are more likely to use health and fitness mobile apps (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.22, 95%CI 1.05-4.75 and aOR 1.95, 95%CI 1.12-3.45, respectively). Higher digital literacy scores were also associated with higher odds of being a user of health and fitness apps, with participants in the second, third, and fourth quartiles reporting aORs of 6.74 (95%CI 2.90-17.40), 10.30 (95%CI 4.28-27.56), and 11.52 (95%CI 4.78-30.87), respectively. Participants with depression symptoms had lower odds of using health and fitness apps (aOR 0.32, 95%CI 0.12-0.83). Conclusions: A better understanding of the barriers and enhancers of app use among patients with lower education, lower digital literacy, or depressive symptoms is key to design tailored interventions to ensure a sustained and equitable use of these technologies. Future studies should also assess users' general health-seeking behavior and their interest and concerns specifically about digital tools. These factors may impact both initial engagement and sustained use.
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| 3. |
- Amaral, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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Profiling Persistent Asthma Phenotypes in Adolescents : A Longitudinal Diagnostic Evaluation from the INSPIRERS Studies
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We aimed to identify persistent asthma phenotypes among adolescents and to evaluate longitudinally asthma-related outcomes across phenotypes. Adolescents (13-17 years) from the prospective, observational, and multicenter INSPIRERS studies, conducted in Portugal and Spain, were included (n = 162). Latent class analysis was applied to demographic, environmental, and clinical variables, collected at a baseline medical visit. Longitudinal differences in clinical variables were assessed at a 4-month follow-up telephone contact (n = 128). Three classes/phenotypes of persistent asthma were identified. Adolescents in class 1 (n = 87) were highly symptomatic at baseline and presented the highest number of unscheduled healthcare visits per month and exacerbations per month, both at baseline and follow-up. Class 2 (n = 32) was characterized by female predominance, more frequent obesity, and uncontrolled upper/lower airways symptoms at baseline. At follow-up, there was a significant increase in the proportion of controlled lower airway symptoms (p < 0.001). Class 3 (n = 43) included mostly males with controlled lower airways symptoms; at follow-up, while keeping symptom control, there was a significant increase in exacerbations/month (p = 0.015). We have identified distinct phenotypes of persistent asthma in adolescents with different patterns in longitudinal asthma-related outcomes, supporting the importance of profiling asthma phenotypes in predicting disease outcomes that might inform targeted interventions and reduce future risk.
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| 4. |
- Bousquet, Jean, et al.
(författare)
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ARIA digital anamorphosis : Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice
- 2021
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Ingår i: Allergy. European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0105-4538 .- 1398-9995. ; 76:1, s. 168-190
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease. The MASK strategy is based on validated digital tools. Using the MASK digital tool and the CARAT online enhanced clinical framework, solutions for practical steps of digital enhancement of care are proposed.
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| 5. |
- Freitas, Felipe F., et al.
(författare)
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Impact of SM parameters and of the vacua of the Higgs potential in gravitational waves detection
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 1475-7516. ; 2022:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work we discuss two different phases of a complex singlet extension of the Standard Model (SM) together with an extension that also includes new fermion fields, in particular, a Majoron model equipped with an inverse seesaw mechanism. All considered scenarios contain a global U(1) symmetry and allow for first-order phase transitions while only two of them are strong enough to favour the detection of primordial gravitational waves (GWs) in planned experiments such as LISA. In particular, this is shown to be possible in the singlet extension with a non vanishing real VEV at zero temperature and also in the model with extra fermions. In the singlet extension with no additional fermions, the detection of GWs strongly depends on the U(1) symmetry breaking pattern of the scalar potential at zero temperature. We study for the first time the impact of the precision in the determination of the SM parameters on the strength of the GWs spectrum. It turns out that the variation of the SM parameters such as the Higgs boson mass and top quark Yukawa coupling in their allowed experimental ranges has a notable impact on GWs detectability prospects.
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| 6. |
- Simoes Cunha, Mafalda, et al.
(författare)
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Symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with persistent asthma : a cross-sectional analysis of the INSPIRERS studies
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2044-6055. ; 13:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ObjectivesAnxiety and depression are relevant comorbidities in asthma, but, in Portugal and Spain, data on this topic are scarce. We assessed, in patients with asthma, the frequency of anxiety and depression using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the European Quality of Life Five Dimension Questionnaire (EQ-5D); the level of agreement between these questionnaires, and the factors associated with these symptoms.MethodsThis is a secondary analysis of the INSPIRERS studies. A total of 614 adolescents and adults with persistent asthma (32.6 +/- 16.9 years, 64.7% female) were recruited from 30 primary care centres and 32 allergy, pulmonology and paediatric clinics. Demographic and clinical characteristics, HADS and EQ-5D were collected. A score >= 8 on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Anxiety/Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression or a positive answer to EQ-5D item 5 indicated the presence of these symptoms. Agreement was determined by Cohen's kappa. Two multivariable logistic regressions were built.ResultsAccording to HADS, 36% of the participants had symptoms of anxiety and 12% of depression. According to EQ-5D, 36% of the participants had anxiety/depression. The agreement between questionnaires in identifying anxiety/depression was moderate (k=0.55, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.62). Late asthma diagnosis, comorbidities and female gender were predictors of anxiety/depression, while better asthma control, health-related quality of life and perception of health were associated with lower odds for anxiety/depression.ConclusionAt least 1/3 of the patients with persistent asthma experience symptoms of anxiety/depression, showing the relevance of screening these disorders in patients with asthma. EQ-5D and HADS questionnaires showed a moderate agreement in the identification of anxiety/depression symptoms. The identified associated factors need to be further investigated in long-term studies.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Addazi, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Gravitational echoes of lepton number symmetry breaking with light and ultralight Majorons
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. - 1475-7516. ; 2023:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We formulate a version of the low-scale Majoron model equipped with an inverse seesaw mechanism featuring lepton-number preserving dimension-6 operators in the scalar potential. Contrary to its dimension-4 counterpart, we find that the model can simultaneously provide light and ultralight Majorons, neutrino masses and their mixing, while featuring strong first-order cosmological phase transitions associated to the spontaneous breaking of the lepton number and the electroweak symmetries in the early Universe. We show by a detailed numerical analysis under which circumstances the model can be probed via the primordial gravitational wave spectrum potentially observable at LISA and other planned facilities. We discuss which implications result for collider physics observables, such as scalar trilinear couplings, the scalar mixing angle and the mass of a new CP-even Higgs boson.
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| 9. |
- Bonilla, Cesar, et al.
(författare)
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Collider signatures of vector-like fermions from a flavor symmetric model
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; 2022:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We propose a model with two Higgs doublets and several SU(2) scalar singlets with a global non-Abelian flavor symmetry Q6× Z2. This discrete group accounts for the observed pattern of fermion masses and mixing angles after spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this scenario only the third generation of fermions get their masses as in the Standard Model (SM). The masses of the remaining fermions are generated through a seesaw-like mechanism. To that end, the matter content of the model is enlarged by introducing electrically charged vector-like fermions (VLFs), right handed Majorana neutrinos and several SM scalar singlets. Here we study the processes involving VLFs that are within the reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We perform collider studies for vector-like leptons (VLLs) and vector-like quarks (VLQs), focusing on double production channels for both cases, while for VLLs single production topologies are also included. Utilizing genetic algorithms for neural network optimization, we determine the statistical significance for a hypothetical discovery at future LHC runs. In particular, we show that we can not safely exclude VLLs for masses greater than 200 GeV. For VLQ’s in our model, we show that we can probe their masses up to 3.8 TeV, if we take only into account the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. Considering Run-III luminosities, we can also exclude VLQs for masses up to 3.4 TeV. We also show how the model with predicted VLL masses accommodates the muon anomalous magnetic moment.
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| 10. |
- Cachim, Afonso, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring adherence to inhaled control medication in patients with asthma : Comparison among an asthma app, patient self-report and physician assessment
- 2023
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Ingår i: Clinical and Translational Allergy. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2045-7022 .- 2045-7022. ; 13:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundPrevious studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using an asthma app to support medication management and adherence but failed to compare with other measures currently used in clinical practice. However, in a clinical setting, any additional adherence measurement must be evaluated in the context of both the patient and physician perspectives so that it can also help improve the process of shared decision making. Thus, we aimed to compare different measures of adherence to asthma control inhalers in clinical practice, namely through an app, patient self-report and physician assessment.MethodsThis study is a secondary analysis of three prospective multicentre observational studies with patients (≥13 years old) with persistent asthma recruited from 61 primary and secondary care centres in Portugal. Patients were invited to use the InspirerMundi app and register their inhaled medication. Adherence was measured by the app as the number of doses taken divided by the number of doses scheduled each day and two time points were considered for analysis: 1-week and 1-month. At baseline, patients and physicians independently assessed adherence to asthma control inhalers during the previous week using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS 0–100).ResultsA total of 193 patients (72% female; median [P25–P75] age 28 [19–41] years old) were included in the analysis. Adherence measured by the app was lower (1 week: 31 [0–71]%; 1 month: 18 [0–48]%) than patient self-report (80 [60–95]) and physician assessment (82 [51–94]) (p < 0.001). A negligible non-significant correlation was found between the app and subjective measurements (ρ 0.118–0.156, p > 0.05). There was a moderate correlation between patient self-report and physician assessment (ρ = 0.596, p < 0.001).ConclusionsAdherence measured by the app was lower than that reported by the patient or the physician. This was expected as objective measurements are commonly lower than subjective evaluations, which tend to overestimate adherence. Nevertheless, the low adherence measured by the app may also be influenced by the use of the app itself and this needs to be considered in future studies.
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