Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2021-02"
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- Polyphasic characterization of carbapenemresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates suggests vertical transmission of the blaKPC-3genePublication . Ferreira, Catarina; Bikkarolla, Santosh K.; Frykholm, Karolin; Pohjanen, Saga; Brito, Margarida; Lameiras, Cataria; Nunes, Olga C.; Westerlund, Fredrik; Manaia, Célia M.Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae are a major global threat in healthcare facilities. The propagation of carbapenem resistance determinants can occur through vertical transmission, with genetic elements being transmitted by the host bacterium, or by horizontal transmission, with the same genetic elements being transferred among distinct bacterial hosts. This work aimed to track carbapenem resistance transmission by K. pneumoniae in a healthcare facility. The study involved a polyphasic approach based on conjugation assays, resistance phenotype and genotype analyses, whole genome sequencing, and plasmid characterization by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and optical DNA mapping. Out of 40 K. pneumoniae clinical isolates recovered over two years, five were carbapenem- and multidrug- resistant and belonged to multilocus sequence type ST147. These isolates harboured the carbapenemase encoding blaKPC-3 gene, integrated in conjugative plasmids of 140 kbp or 55 kbp, belonging to replicon types incFIA/incFIIK or incN/incFIIK, respectively. The two distinct plasmids encoding the blaKPC-3 gene were associated with distinct genetic lineages, as confirmed by optical DNA mapping and whole genome sequence analyses. These results suggested vertical (bacterial strain-based) transmission of the carbapenem-resistance genetic elements. Determination of the mode of transmission of antibiotic resistance in healthcare facilities, only possible based on polyphasic approaches as described here, is essential to control resistance propagation.
- Hierarchical cluster analysis of human value priorities and associations with subjective well-being, subjective general health, social life, and depression across EuropePublication . Leite, Ângela; Ramires, Ana; Vidal, Diogo Guedes; Sousa, Hélder Fernando Pedrosa e; Dinis, Maria Alzira Pimenta; Fidalgo, AlexandraHuman values are a central component in understanding individuals’ choices. Using the Schwartz’s Values instrument, this study aimed to identify patterns of human value priorities of 35, 936 participants across 20 European countries and analyse their relations with subjective well-being (SWB), subjective general health (SGH), social life, and depression indices in Europe. A hierarchical cluster analysis of data from the seventh European Social Survey (ESS) round 7, based on the higher order dimensions of the Schwartz values model, allowed identifying four European groups with distinct indicators. Indices of SWB, SGH, social life, and depression showed statistically significant differences among the four different sociodemographic groups. The graphical representation of the monotonic correlations of each of these indices with the value priorities attributed to the ten basic human values was ordered according to the Schwartz circumplex model, yielding quasi-sinusoidal patterns. The differences among the four groups can be explained by their distinct sociodemographic characteristics: social focus, growth focus, strong social focus, and weak growth focus. The results of this study suggest a rehabilitation of the notion of hedonism, raising the distinction between higher and lower pleasures, with the former contributing more to well-being than the latter.
- A framework design for information management in heritage science laboratoriesPublication . Bordalo, Rui; Bottaini, Carlo; Candeias, AntónioThe dataflow in any scientific research laboratory is continuous and considerable even in analytical niches such as heritage science laboratories. This article discusses advantages of using a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for organising and systematising research in an interdisciplinary analytical laboratory. LIMS solutions are proven to be effective in managing laboratories, organising their daily management tasks, improving work conditions and increasing productivity, managing equipment and resources, and managing and safeguarding scientific data. LIMS software is commercially available since the 1990s with over a hundred software packages intended either for general or specific purposes. However, the ones currently available do not fulfil all the requirements for heritage science or are over-the-top, complex, one-fits-all standard solutions. The system here proposed was developed for a heritage science laboratory, considering its unique requirements, having as a case study the HERCULES Lab, from the University of Évora (Portugal). This article documents our approach based on the analysis of the unique requirements for the lab resulting in a proposal of a custom user-centred web-based system. For this, we discuss in detail the workflow, and the required system architecture. We conclude that although it is a small niche market for major manufacturers to dwell on, a custom LIMS is of the utmost importance for the current management of heritage science laboratories across the globe.
- Custos indiretos associados a eventos cardiovasculares em PortugalPublication . Gouveia, Miguel
- O lugar de Angola no contexto da Teologia Africana : a Didáskw e outras publicações como casos de estudoPublication . Prata, Adelino Kanjengenga; Nunes, José Manuel Valente da SilvaInserida no contexto do pluralismo teológico, a Teologia Africana pretende ser, essencialmente, uma maneira de o africano, a partir do seu contexto cultural, assumir e responder à pergunta de Jesus aos discípulos de todos os tempos e lugares: “E vós, quem dizeis que Eu sou?” (Mt 16, 15). Neste sentido, ela é sempre uma inteligência da fé elaborada pelo teólogo, comprometido no seio do Povo de Deus, confrontado com situações históricas, socioculturais, económicas e políticas diferentes, ao longo dos tempos. Por isso, os teólogos africanos têm procurado, cada vez mais, incorporar formas de pensamento ou filosofia africanas, com o objetivo de produzir uma teologia completa e sistemática. Esta procura tem contado, grandemente, com contributos de teólogos africanos de expressão francesa e inglesa; há uma certa quase “ausência” da parte lusófona. Com o propósito de se escalpelizar o contributo de Angola para a “lusofonização” da Teologia Africana, este trabalho debruça-se sobre o lugar de Angola no contexto da Teologia Africana: A Didáskw e outras publicações como casos de estudo.
- How humans judge machinesPublication . Hidalgo, César A.; Orghian, Diana; Canals, Jordi Albo; Almeida, Filipa de; Martin, NataliaHow would you feel about losing your job to a machine? How about a tsunami alert system that fails? Would you react differently to acts of discrimination depending on whether they were carried out by a machine or by a human? What about public surveillance? How Humans Judge Machines compares people's reactions to actions performed by humans and machines. Using data collected in dozens of experiments, this book reveals the biases that permeate human-machine interactions. Are there conditions in which we judge machines unfairly? Is our judgment of machines affected by the moral dimensions of a scenario? Is our judgment of machine correlated with demographic factors such as education or gender? César Hidalgo and colleagues use hard science to take on these pressing technological questions. Using randomized experiments, they create revealing counterfactuals and build statistical models to explain how people judge artificial intelligence and whether they do it fairly. Through original research, How Humans Judge Machines bring us one step closer to understanding the ethical consequences of AI.
- A infância nos poemas homéricosPublication . Pinto, Ana PaulaAs the first European literary documents, the Iliad and the Odyssey ensure in the cultural history of the West a unique status: assuming itself since Antiquity as the first foundation of philological and philosophical research, and superior literary and artistic model, and today tended to be interpreted in the framework of slow creative elaboration of generations of aedos, based on a peculiar technique of production and transmission, both articulate in an enigmatic poetic plot, from their traditional nature, threads of mythic narratives and historical realities that modern archaeological investigations confirm. Starting from the poetic pretext offered by the two works, we propose to trace references to the universe of childhood. Some, generic, occur as images of a certain extract from human society, marked by peculiar characteristics, functions and needs. Others, supported by specific mentions of determined children, assume a specific dramatic functionality in the mythical plot of the two poems, which contributes to the peculiar symbolic density of the narrative.
- O regime jurídico da proteção do denunciantePublication . Freitas, PedroA atenção dada à necessidade de consagração de medidas de apoio e proteção aos denunciantes não é recente, embora tenha conhecido um ímpeto reforçado com a entrada em vigor da Diretiva 2019/1937 do Parlamento Europeu e do Conselho, de 23 de outubro de 2019, relativa à proteção das pessoas que denunciam violações do direito da União, cujo prazo-limite de transposição se verifica a 17 de dezembro de 2021. A sua transposição constitui uma oportunidade para a consagração de um regime jurídico geral de proteção dos denunciantes na ordem jurídica portuguesa, que venha trazer coerência normativa e unidade de sentido a um sistema disperso, avulso e fragmentário, promovendo-se, desse modo, o mandato sociocomunitário de promoção da transparência, justiça e igualdade.
- Human values and religion: evidence from the european social surveyPublication . Carneiro, Ana; Sousa, Hélder Fernando Pedrosa e; Dinis, Maria Alzira Pimenta; Leite, ÂngelaValues are guiding constructs of social action that connote some actions as desirable, undesirable, acceptable, and unacceptable, containing a normative moral/ethical component, and constituting a guide for actions, attitudes, and objectives for which the human being strives. The role of religion in the development of moral and ideal behaviors is a subject of concern and object of theoretical and empirical debate in various sciences. Analyzing sociodemographic and religious variables, the present work aimed to understand the contribution of religious variables to the explanation of Schwartz’s human values and to identify an explanatory model of second-order values, i.e., selftranscendence, conservation, self-promotion, and openness to change. This study was carried out with a representative sample of the Portuguese population, consisting of 1270 participants from the European Social Survey (ESS), Round 8. Benevolence (as human motivational value) and self-transcendence (as a second-order value) were found to be the most prevalent human values among respondents, with the female gender being the one with the greatest religious identity, the highest frequency of religious practices, and valuing self-transcendence and conservation the most. Older participants had a more frequent practice and a higher religious identity than younger ones, with age negatively correlating with conservation and positively with openness to change. It was concluded that age, religious identity, and an item of religious practice contribute to explain 13.9% of the conservation variance. It was also found that age and religious practice are the variables that significantly contribute to explain 12.2% of the variance of openness to change. Despite the associations between psychological variables (values) and religious ones, it can be concluded that religious variables contribute very moderately to explain human values. The results obtained in this study raised some important issues, namely, if these weakly related themes, i.e., religiosity and human values, are the expression of people belief without belonging.
- PROJETO FAINA 1:1 - (re)pensar manuais digitaisPublication . Lagarto, José; Faria, Ana Rita; Mata, Jorge