Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2020-11"
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- Exploring associations between attitudes towards climate change and motivational human valuesPublication . Dias, Narcisa Maria Oliveira Carvalho; Vidal, Diogo Guedes; Sousa, Hélder Fernando Pedrosa e; Dinis, Maria Alzira Pimenta; Leite, ÂngelaClimate change (CC) represents a global challenge for humanity. It is known that the impacts of anthropogenic actions are an unequivocal contribution to environmental issues aggravation. Human values are recognized as psychological constructs that guide people in their attitudes and actions in different areas of life, and the promotion of pro-environmental behaviors in the context of CC must be considered a priority. The present work aimed to understand the contribution of attitudes towards CC and selected sociodemographic variables to explain Schwartz’s motivational human values. The sample consists of 1270 Portuguese answering the European social survey (ESS) Round 8. Benevolence and self-transcendence are the most prevalent human values among respondents. The majority believe in CC and less than half in its entirely anthropogenic nature. It was found that the concern with CC and education contributes to explain 11.8% of the conservation variance; gender and concern about CC explain 10.1% of the variance of self-transcendence; and age, gender and concern about CC contribute to explain 13% of the variance of openness to change. This study underlines the main human values’ drivers of attitudes towards CC, central components in designing an effective societal response to CC impacts, which must be oriented towards what matters to individuals and communities, at the risk of being ineffective.
- Identification of emerging hazards in mussels by the Galician Emerging Food Safety Risks Network (RISEGAL). A first approachPublication . Cabo, Marta López; Romalde, Jesús L.; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Martínez, Ana Gago; Fernández, Jorge Giráldez; Costas, Marta Bernárdez; Hierro, Santiago Pascual del; Ortega, Ánxela Pousa; Manaia, Célia M.; Silva, Joana Abreu; Herrera, Juan RodríguezEmerging risk identification is a priority for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The goal of the Galician Emerging Food Safety Risks Network (RISEGAL) is the identification of emerging risks in foods produced and commercialized in Galicia (northwest Spain) in order to propose prevention plans and mitigation strategies. In this work, RISEGAL applied a systematic approach for the identification of emerging food safety risks potentially affecting bivalve shellfish. First, a comprehensive review of scientific databases was carried out to identify hazards most quoted as emerging in bivalves in the period 2016–2018. Then, identified hazards were semiquantitatively assessed by a panel of food safety experts, who scored them accordingly with the five evaluation criteria proposed by EFSA: novelty, soundness, imminence, scale, and severity. Scores determined that perfluorinated compounds, antimicrobial resistance, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, hepatitis E virus (HEV), and antimicrobial residues are the emerging hazards that are considered most imminent and severe and that could cause safety problems of the highest scale in the bivalve value chain by the majority of the experts consulted (75%). Finally, in a preliminary way, an exploratory study carried out in the Galician Rías highlighted the presence of HEV in mussels cultivated in class B production areas.
- Detecção precoce das doenças de Alzheimer e Parkinson através de parâmetros não-lineares multibanda de sinais EEGPublication . Silva, Gabriel; Alves, Marco; Bispo, Bruno C.; Rodrigues, Pedro M.Este trabalho tem como objetivo a detecção precoce das doenças de Alzheimer e Parkinson através de parâmetros não-lineares multibanda de sinais EEG. Para cada par de grupos de estudo, uma seleção dos parâmetros é realizada através de algoritmo genético. Os parâmetros selecionados são utilizados como entrada para classificadores com validação cruza da leave-one-out. Acurácias de classificação de 100% são obtidas, empelo menos uma sub-banda, para 3 pares de grupos de estudo enquanto 90,60% é alcançado para o par Controle vs Alzhei-mer/Parkinson. A sub-banda delta foi a que, em geral, apresentou maiores diferenças significativas entre os grupos.
- Blueberry consumption challenges hepatic mitochondrial bioenergetics and elicits transcriptomics reprogramming in healthy wistar ratsPublication . Nunes, Sara; Viana, Sofia D.; Preguiça, Inês; Alves, André; Fernandes, Rosa; Teodoro, João S.; Figueirinha, Artur; Salgueiro, Lígia; Silva, Sara; Jarak, Ivana; Carvalho, Rui A.; Cavadas, Cláudia; Rolo, Anabela P.; Palmeira, Carlos M.; Pintado, Maria M.; Reis, FlávioAn emergent trend of blueberries’ (BB) “prophylactic” consumption, due to their phytochemicals’ richness and well-known health-promoting claims, is widely scaled-up. However, the benefits arising from BB indiscriminate intake remains puzzling based on incongruent preclinical and human data. To provide a more in-depth elucidation and support towards a healthier and safer consumption, we conducted a translation-minded experimental study in healthy Wistar rats that consumed BB in a juice form (25 g/kg body weight (BW)/day; 14 weeks’ protocol). Particular attention was paid to the physiological adaptations succeeding in the gut and liver tissues regarding the acknowledged BB-induced metabolic benefits. Systemically, BB boosted serum antioxidant activity and repressed the circulating levels of 3-hydroxybutyrate (3-HB) ketone bodies and 3-HB/acetoacetate ratio. Moreover, BB elicited increased fecal succinic acid levels without major changes on gut microbiota (GM) composition and gut ultra-structural organization. Remarkably, an accentuated hepatic mitochondrial bioenergetic challenge, ensuing metabolic transcriptomic reprogramming along with a concerted anti-inflammatory pre-conditioning, was clearly detected upon long-term consumption of BB phytochemicals. Altogether, the results disclosed herein portray a quiescent mitochondrial-related metabolomics and hint for a unified adaptive response to this nutritional challenge. The beneficial or noxious consequences arising from this dietary trend should be carefully interpreted and necessarily claims future research.
- Cidades CriativasPublication . Teixeira, Luis Miguel Lopes
- A new look at employee happiness: how employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happinessPublication . Bastos, Wilson; Barsade, Sigal G.
- Literacia em saúde e a COVID-19 em PortugalPublication . Telo de Arriaga, MiguelO desafio que agora se apresenta mostra de forma clara a importância de se considerar na definição de literacia em saúde, para além do “conhecimento, a motivação e as competências das pessoas para aceder, compreender, avaliar e aplicar informação em saúde”, a importância de criar contextos de oportunidade e ativar as pessoas, comunidades e a população a adotar comportamentos de prevenção da doença e proteção e promoção da saúde. É conhecido o impacto da intervenção da Literacia em Saúde no âmbito da melhoria dos indicadores relativos às doenças crónicas não transmissíveis, o que indica que a transversalidade das intervenções e a antecipação dos períodos críticos surgem como condições centrais na capacitação das pessoas para a gestão e controlo da sua saúde, informação-chave para a adequação de intervenções noutros contextos como a intervenção em doenças transmissíveis. Face a uma situação de pandemia como a que atualmente se vive, o papel da Literacia em Saúde na prevenção da doença e na proteção e promoção da saúde, alinhado de forma estreita com comunicação de risco e comunicação de crise e o estudo dos behavioural insights, surge como sendo a abordagem mais eficaz, tendo como melhor resposta o comportamento adequado das populações.
- Intermittent load of 2-fluorophenol in saline wastewater shapes aerobic granular sludge microbiome and reactor performancePublication . Oliveira, Ana S.; Amorim, Catarina L.; Loosdrecht, Mark C. M. van; Castro, PaulaIndustrial effluents often contain organic pollutants and variable salinity levels, making their treatment challenging. Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is an innovative and compact wastewater treatment technology for the treatment of domestic and industrial water streams. The high content of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in AGS composition is thought to protect , to some extent, the microbial communities from stressful conditions in external environment. This work aimed to evaluate the robustness of AGS systems in terms of nutrient removal performance and to unravel the protective role of EPS towards transient feeding with a toxic pollutant (2-fluorophenol - 2-FP) in saline wastewater. Moreover, the taxonomic and functional patterns of the AGS microbiome were characterized and linked with nutrient removal performance and EPS production. In order to mimic transient states of composition typical of industrial effluents, the reactor inlet medium periodically varied regarding to 2-FP presence and salt concentration.
- Parental attitudes of children without neurodevelopmental disorders and inclusion of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)Publication . Campos, Sofia; Pinto, Flávia; Ferreira, Manuela; Cardoso, Ana Paula; Ribeiro, Célia; Couceiro, PaulaOver the last decade there has been a development on the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in mainstream education. The general objective is to analyze the attitudes of parents of children without neurodevelopmental disorders regarding the inclusion of children with Special Educational Needs. Methods: This is a comparative and correlational study and aims to: Characterize and analyze the possible differences in attitudes of parents of children without neurodevelopmental disorders regarding the inclusion of children with SEN considering the three disorders. The results revealed that parents of children without neurodevelopmental disorders tend to show positive attitudes towards the inclusion of children with SEN. It was found that the type of disturbance and the description that is made of children with SEN have an influence on parental attitudes, which show more positive attitudes towards Hearing Impairment, followed by Trisomy 21, and Behavioral Disorder. Conclusions: Sensitizing parents of children without neurodevelopmental disorders plays an essential role in the messages they convey to their children promoting inclusion.
- Detecção da doença de Alzheimer em diferentes estágios através do espectro de potências da Wavelet Packet de sinais EEGPublication . Cunha, Rui M. da; Bispo, Bruno C.; Rodrigues, Pedro M.Este trabalho tem como objetivo detectar a doença de Alzheimer em diferentes estágios através de sinais EEG. Potências relativas às frequências convencionais são obtidas dos valores máximo, mínimo e médio de estimativas do espectro de potências da Wavelet Packet. Para cada par de grupos de estudo e eletrodo, uma seleção dos parâmetros é realizada. Os parâmetros selecionados são utilizados como entrada para classificadores com validação cruzada leave-one-out. Acurácias de classificação de100% são obtidas, em pelo menos 1 eletrodo, para os 6 pares de grupos analisados, indicando as regiões no escalpe com maiores diferenças à medida que a doença progride. E acurácias médias, incluindo todos os eletrodos, entre 81,3 e 91,4% são alcançadas.