Research Highlights 2009
Faculdade de Direito
1. Continuation and reinforcement of a Legislative Observatory, aiming at the study of the impact of legislation upon the social practice in the targeted areas.
2. Evaluation on legal system against discrimination based on sate of health (under contract with national authorities for Health and Aids) started. By “ANTÍGONA – Livres e Iguais”.
3. Evaluation of implementation of Mediation in Criminal Law in Portugal (under contract with Ministry of Justice) – second phase.
4. Alternative Dispute Resolution – Expansion of UMAC activities.
5. Development of Intellectual Property Area of study and research: “CPIC”
Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação
Some representative examples of the research developed at ISEGI, during 2009, are: in the field of statistics the research on spatial-temporal models (published in the International Journal of Climatology, Journal of Environmental Monitoring and International Journal of Wildland Fire) and the work on variance-based methods for estimation structural equation models (published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing). In the information management field, the application of self-organizing maps within the context of geographic information science (published in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science and in Environment and Planning B); the development of information systems for sustainable growth (published in International Journal of Remote Sensing and Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences); and the developments on the effects of business intelligence systems on business processes (published on the Information Research).
During 2009 ISEGI started or continued to develop 8 fundamental research and 13 applied research projects. We would like to underline one large research project funded by the European Commission: the coordination of the SuGIK Project – Sustainable Geographic Information Knowledge Transfer for Postgraduate Education, 2008-2011; as well as one Project funded by the FCT and which involves the participation of ISEGI in the RISCOS Consortium, lead by the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), in which ISEGI is vice-coordinator in the thematic area of “Risks for infrastructure systems” and which will run from 2009 to 2019.
Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica
The 192 papers published in ISI journals during 2009 span different areas of chemistry and biology; these papers reflect the high-quality research work at ITQB and contribute to the over 1,600 papers published in the last 10 years with a corresponding number of citations of 23,197 (h-index for this period is 57).
ITQB researchers received many distinctions for their work presented at international scientific meetings. On a more individual note, Claudina Rodrigues Pousada was honoured at the FEBS Congress and was recognized with the Almofariz Award by the pharmaceutical sector; Helena Santos and Cecilia Arraiano became Members of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences.
Details of research highlights in 2009 can be found at www.itqb.unl.pt.
Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical
Research highlights in 2009 were related to tropical RD (malaria, leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, African trypanosomiasis e hepatitis) and scientific meetings and reports. A report on malaria pre elimination in Sao Tome and Principe (under STP/Taiwan coordination) was widely read, a 2nd meeting of the Iberian Malaria Platform (34 registered groups) took place in Madrid, and a CPLP-supported malaria network strategy of lusophone countries was further developed and strengthened.
Sequencing of the gene and construction of a 3D theoretical model of the protein disulfide isomerase from Plasmodium chabaudi as well as the localization of chabaupain-1 in Anopheles sp. The Portuguese National Leishmaniasis Observatory (ONLeish; www.onleish.org) conducted a national screening of canine leishmaniasis). IHMT co-organized the XI Iberian Congress on Parasitology. An invited editorial/review was published in the Official Journal of the International Society of Chemotherapy on the Institute´s work on the therapy of multi drug resistant TBd and funds were awarded by European Science Foundation to organize an International workshop on the subject.
DNA vaccine prototypes for Trypanosoma brucei were able to induce humoral and partial protective immune response in a murine model. Proteomics in human liver infected by hepatitis D virus was carried out. Two new World Health Organization publications (on migration of health personnel in Europe and on the health workforce situation in the African lusophone countries) were prepared. Our biostatisticians conducted research focused on latent class models in tropical health and mathematical modeling in infectious diseases. IHMT still maintains the only Associate Laboratory on Health Sciences and he largest number of expatriate PhD students registered at the UNL.
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública
In 2009, the ENSP devoted particularly to develop its research. There was a marked increase in number of publications in refereed journals and the number of collaborative projects with other entities Its research areas continued to be very comprehensive, relevant and actual: tuberculosis control, smoking cessation, health and safety, literacy and information systems in health, organization of primary health care models, integration into health, cost-effectiveness of public health programs, responding to pandemic threats, contracts in health services, among others. Two examples: ECHO-European Collaboration for Healthcare Optimization (7th Framework Program); Research regarding the evaluation of care pathways for COPD and Proximal Femur Fracture patients in different European countries - European Pathway Association.
In late 2009, about 30 professors and researchers from ENSP (16 of them PhDs) joined the associated lab CMDT.LA, Centre for Malaria and Tropical Diseases (IHMT), now under restructuring.
