P-CSREC: A New Approach for Personalized Cloud Service Recommendation

It is becoming a challenging issue for users to choose a satisfied service to fit their need due to the rapid growing number of cloud services and the vast amount of service type varieties. This paper proposes an effective cloud service recommendation approach, named personalized cloud service recommendation (P-CSREC), based on the characterization of heterogeneous information network, the use of association rule mining, and the modeling and clustering of user interests. First, a similarity measure is defined to improve the average similarity (AvgSim) measure by the inclusion of the subjective evaluation of users’ interests. Based on the improved AvgSim, a new model for measuring the user interest is established. Second, the traditional K-Harmonic Means (KHM) clustering algorithm is improved by means of involving multi meta-paths to avoid the convergence of local optimum. Then, a frequent pattern growth (FP-Growth) association rules algorithm is proposed to address the issue and the limitation of traditional association rule algorithms to offer personalization in recommendation. A new method to define a support value of nodes is developed using the weight of user’s score. In addition, a multi-level FP-Tree is defined based on the multi-level association rules theory to extract the relationship in higher level. Finally, a combined user interest with the improved KHM clustering algorithm and the improved FP-Growth algorithm is provided to improve accuracy of cloud services recommendation to target users. The experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach in improving the computational efficiency and recommendation accurac

A seleção e a produção de materiais didáticos no processo do ensino do português aos alunos chineses

Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino do Português como Língua segunda e EstrangeiraNesta última década, houve uma crescente demanda pelo ensino do português na China. Neste sentido, surge esta dissertação, inserida no contexto de aprendizagem do português como língua estrangeira pelos estudantes universitários chineses, que tem como objetivo principal verificar quais os critérios para a seleção e para a produção de materiais didáticos em português, principalmente os materiais direcionados a alunos chineses que frequentam o curso de licenciatura em português nas universidades. O tema cria oportunidades para pensarmos na relação que se estabelece entre a seleção e a produção do material didático usado na aula de português e a situação especial de ensino que é a dos estudantes universitários chineses a aprender língua portuguesa. Embora este trabalho se centre no ensino do português para chineses, algumas discussões podem ser uma mais-valia para professores e criadores de materiais didáticos para alunos de outras nacionalidades. A partir dos questionários foram criadas tabelas e categorias, com base nos parâmetros da abordagem comunicativa na aquisição de língua estrangeira, na qual as quatro competências específicas se apresentam (falar, ouvir, escrever e ler). Foram encontradas três categorias básicas: os critérios mais utilizados para a seleção dos livros didáticos para o objetivo geral de ensino; os critérios diferentes para a seleção e produção de materiais didáticos para os objetivos específicos (diferentes disciplinas) no processo de ensino do português aos alunos chineses; e as situações reais da utilização do livro didático de português na China

A comunicação intercultural ao nível da intervenção pedagógica no ensino do português como língua estrangeira a alunos chineses na China

A globalização aproxima os povos: o mundo chinês e o mundo português nunca tiveram uma relação tão estreita como a atual. Apesar de os portugueses terem ido os primeiros ocidentais a entrar na China com a chegada de Jorge Álvares a uma ilha chinesa, em 1513, e os últimos ocidentais a deixar o governo de um território chinês, com a transferência da administração portuguesa de Macau para a China a 20 de dezembro de 1999, nunca haviam sido registados, nos últimos séculos, grandes contatos ou intercâmbios comerciais e culturais entre a China e Portugal e entre o mundo chinês e o mundo lusófono, em comparação com os contatos entre o mundo chinês e outros mundos ocidentais: como o inglês, o francês, o alemão e o espanhol. Os objetivos gerais desta investigação são três: 1 - Reconhecer o papel do desenvolvimento da competência omunicativa intercultural no contexto do ensino-aprendizagem do português como LE na China. 2 - Promover o desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa intercultural dos alunos chineses no processo de aprendizagem da língua portuguesa na China. 3 - Analisar os métodos pedagógicos e de integração curricular para apoiar e desenvolver um ensino mais eficaz do português como LE na China. O desenvolvimento do nosso trabalho articula-se em duas áreas científicas: Ciências da Linguagem e Ciências da Educação. A abordagem metodológica utilizada é o estudo de caso, com recolha de dados primários realizada através de questionários, entrevistas e observação participante em profundidade, que permitiu a confirmação e/ou refutação das hipóteses levantadas, privilegiando a metodologia qualitativa. Os resultados permitem estabelecer uma relação significativa, do ponto de vista pedagógico, entre a comunicação intercultural na educação e as práticas pedagógicas desenvolvidas no ensino do português como língua estrangeira na China. Contudo e de acordo com a nossa pesquisa, o maior problema que impede as práticas pedagógicas para desenvolver as competências comunicativas no ensino, é a falta de materiais didáticos com estrutura para elaborar um programa de atividades coerentes e complementares nas aulas.The globalization has closed the distance between people: the relation between two “worlds” – China and Portugal- has never been such intimate like time of day. Starting from 1513 when Jorge Álvares reached an island of China, Portuguese became the first groups of westerners who entered China, and on 20 December 1999 Portuguese government handed over the governance of Macau to Chinese government, which marked the day that last groups of westerners withdrew from territory of China. In early centuries, comparing the interaction between China and other countries (like UK, France, Germany and Spain), China and Portugal, the two worlds have had such frequent interaction by today that they never had and so many records of comercial communications and cultural exchanges are being documented. The purport of this research comprises the following three: 1. To re-recognize the role of the development of cross-cultural communication competence in teaching Portuguese as a foreign language 2. To promote and enhance the Chinese students’cross-cultural communication competence in course of learning Portuguese in China. 3. To analyze the more effective teaching methods and the model of curriculum design with the purpose of facilitating and developing the teaching Portuguese to speakers of other languages in China. Our research mainly pertains to two domains:linguistics and pedagogy Case study is the main approach we have employed in research and analysis with the emphasis on qualitative analysis method. By undertaking questionnaire, interview and intensive participant observation, we complete thespicilegium of initial data. This method enables us to have a more extensive research perspective, with observation to various situations, to affirm or negate our research hypothesis. The outcome of this research will proceed from the angle of pedagogy to build up the profound relations for and between cross-cultural communications in pedagogy and the development of teaching practice of Portuguese as a foreign language in China. Based on our research, the biggest obstacle in development of communication competence in teaching activities is the insufficiency of systematic teaching materials, which can further assist in developing coherent and integrated teaching programs

Editorial

Editorial da Revista Rotas a Oriente 4 (2024)

CI431, an Aqueous Compound from Ciona intestinalis L., Induces Apoptosis through a Mitochondria-Mediated Pathway in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

In the present studies, a novel compound with potent anti-tumor activity from Ciona intestinalis L. was purified by acetone fractionation, ultrafiltration, gel chromatography and High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The molecular weight of the highly purified compound, designated CI431, was 431Da as determined by HPLC-MS analysis. CI431 exhibited significant cytotoxicity to several cancer cell types. However, only a slight inhibitory effect was found when treating the benign human liver cell line BEL-7702 with the compound. To explore its mechanism against hepatocellular carcinoma, BEL-7402 cells were treated with CI431 in vitro. We found that CI431 induced apoptotic death in BEL-7402 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that CI431 caused cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, and a sub-G1 peak appeared after 24 h. The mitochondrial-mediated pathway was implicated in this CI431-induced apoptosis as evidenced by the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential. The results suggest that the CI431 induces apoptosis in BEL-7402 human hepatoma cells by intrinsic mitochondrial pathway

Effects of Enzymatic Hydrolysis on the Allergenicity of Whey Protein Concentrates

Cow’s milk whey consists of many protein components and some of them are antigens to human and known to modulate immune responses. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a useful method to modify proteins with allergenicity. The objective of this study was to identify whether the in vitro enzymatic hydrolysis could reduce the allergenicity of whey protein concentrates (WPC). In  this study, WPC were hydrolyzed by trypsin and twenty-four BALB/c mice were divided into three groups and fed with WPC formula and WPC hydrolysates formula, while the control mice received milk-free diet. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the body weights among all groups. WPC-fed mice produced an elevated spleen lymphocyte proliferation level than WPC hydrolysates-fed mice and also produced higher levels of WPC-specific IgE in intestinal tract and serum in comparison to WPC hydrolysates-fed mice and control group. Significant up-regulation of plasma histamine levels were also observed and showed the same trend with IgE. The secretions of IL-4 and IL-5 were significantly enhanced by WPC. WPC significantly suppressed  the  secretion of  IFN-γ  while hydrolysates of  WPC significantly increased the secretion of IFN-γ compared to control group. These results suggest that hydrolysis may play a role to reduce the allergenicity of WPC

Mechanical and Rheological Properties of Bamboo Pulp Fiber Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composites: Influence of Nano CaCO3 Treatment and Manufacturing Process with Different Pressure Ratings

Article investigating the effect of the relative motion of nano CaCO3 reinforced bamboo pulp fiber (BPF)/HDPE composite components on the mechanical performance

Functional Analysis of the Melanin-Associated Gene CmMR1 in Coniothyrium minitans

Coniothyrium minitans is a sclerotial parasite, which has been investigated for commercial control of crop diseases caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Previously, we obtained a T-DNA insertional mutant, ZS-1TN24363, which did not produce melanin during conidiation. To understand the function of melanin in C. minitans, we cloned the gene that was disrupted by the T-DNA insertion, and found that this gene, called CmMR1, encoded a putative protein of 1,011 amino acids, which is a homolog of the transcription factor MR. Full-length CmMR1 contains 3,167 bp, with three exons and two introns. To confirm that the disrupted gene is responsible for the melanin-deficiency of the mutant, CmMR1 was disrupted and three targeted knockout mutants were obtained. Biological assays showed that the phenotype of the targeted knockout mutants was similar to that of the T-DNA insertional mutant. Furthermore, gene complementation confirmed that CmMR1 is responsible for the mutant phenotype. CmMR1 disruption did not affect hyphal growth, conidiation, and parasitization of C. minitans, however, the ROS accumulation increased and tolerance to UV light decreased significantly in the mutants. Our result may enhance the understanding of melanin in the ecology of C. minitans on molecular level

葡中跨文化对话 (第一辑)

Criado a 23 de abril de 2015, o Instituto Confúcio da Universidade de Aveiro (IC-UA) tem como principais missões apoiar e promover o ensino da língua e da cultura chinesas em Portugal, reforçar a cooperação no domínio educativo entre a China e Portugal, desenvolver atividades de investigação no âmbito das relações sino-portuguesas, que contribuam para melhorar a compreensão mútua e a amizade entre estes dois países tão distantes, mas unidos por seculares relações históricas. Este livro, o primeiro de uma série dedicada aos Diálogos Interculturais Portugal-China, surge no contexto desta última linha de ação do IC-UA. Reúne 43 estudos de investigadores portugueses e chineses, nos domínios das relações políticas e económicas, da história, da cultura, da literatura, da tradução, das artes e do ensino das línguas, distribuídos por duas partes: I. Rotas de aproximação (pp. 11-346); II. Línguas e artes em diálogo (pp. 347-624).葡萄牙阿威罗大学孔子学院成立于2015年4月23日，其主要任务是支持和促 进葡萄牙中国语言与文化的教学，加强两国在教育领域的合作，并开展与中葡关 系相关的科研活动。中国与葡萄牙相距甚远，却因数百年的历史渊源而团结在一 起。而阿威罗大学孔子学院则为增进两国之间的友谊与相互理解作出了贡献。 本书为《葡中跨文化对话》系列丛书的第一辑，是阿威罗大学孔子学院中 葡关系科学研究的成果，收录了葡萄牙和中国学者在政治经济关系、历史、文 化、文学、翻译、艺术和语言教学领域的43篇论文。全书分为上下两篇：《增 进往来之路》（11页~346页）与《对话中的语言与艺术》（347页~624页）。publishe