Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2023-01-04"
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- The current challenge to restore factual truth in the age of disinformation and post-truth: the case of the fact-checker ‘Polígrafo’ in PortugalPublication . Rodrigues, Luís Pedro RibeiroFact-checking emerges as a new journalistic approach in the scope of measures to combat disinformation. It verifies the veracity of information circulating in the media ecosystem, especially on the Internet and online social media. However, fact-checking has some limitations. For example, the human ability to check information is not sufficient for the massive production of false information. Moreover, journalism is complex and often deals with partially true or partially false information. These issues are addressed in the first part of the paper, situating fact-checking in the social context of disinformation and post-truth. Then, the product developed by the fact-checker “Polígrafo” in Portugal is described and interpreted. The analysis based on theoretical and empirical data can help improving this new journalistic approach without disregarding its contribution to combating disinformation. The results confirm social media as the preferred media for selecting information to be analysed and the option for a fact-checking model with a verdict based on a rating scale of veracity. Furthermore, it was observed an effort to contextualise the fact. It also includes interviews with people involved in the event, rhetorical questions giving a didactic tone to the text, bold marking of the most relevant information, and hyperlinks to other information sources.
- Positive leadership action framework: Simply doing good and doing wellPublication . Redín, Dulce M.; Meyer, Marcel; Rego, ArménioThis article presents the Positive Leadership Action Framework (PLAF) to structure Positive Leadership (PL). The novelty of the PLAF is that it incorporates the connections of PL to positive outcomes (financial and economic performance and social well-being) and organizational virtuousness. Also, it acknowledges its conditional nature on the virtues to achieve flourishing within the organization and society at large. We argue that the leader’s actions function as the engine for positive change within the organization, bridging the gap between individual virtues and organizational virtuousness and creating a feedback loop among both. To develop a positive organization, a leader needs to create positive assumptions among (and about) coworkers, positively impact the personal and professional development of employees, and balance positive formal and informal conditions at work. To do so, it is a sine qua non condition that the positive leader fosters his/her personal development by exercising the virtues and developing practical wisdom. In this way, the positive leader automatically provides followers with a vision of the final end towards the common good and achieves to set his/her organization on a pathway towards excellence.
- Quality of life of higher education students at the Polytechnic Institutes of Santarem and Leiria during the COVID-19 pandemicPublication . Figueiredo, Maria do Carmo; Amendoeira, José; Rosa, Marta; Matos, Rui; Silva, Mário; Coelho, Teresa; Gonzaga, Luís; Chicau, CarlaObjective: This study aims to determine the quality of life of higher education students at the Polytechnic Institutes of Santarem and Leiria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The population consists of 6483 students attending higher education, from both Institutes. A total of 775 participants selected by convenience sampling, participated in the study. Study with a quantitative, descriptive, correlational character, aiming to describe phenomena and, in addition, identify and explore possible relationships between variables. The WHOQOL-Bref instrument adapted from WHO was applied. The data treatment and analysis were performed using descriptive, correlational, and inferential statistics. Results: Students' self-assessment about Quality of Life is globally superior to the self-assessment with their satisfaction with health, where the female students have lower average values than the male students. The WHOQOL-Bref domains referring to Quality of Life with higher values were the Physical and Environment domain, with the Social Relations and Psychological domains having the lowest values. Conclusion: The results point to the need for intervention to promote the Quality of Life of students, focusing on psychosocial factors, due to the conditions imposed during the confinement period, by the pandemic COVID-19.
- Insights into the transcriptional regulation of poorly characterized alcohol acetyltransferase-encoding genes (HgAATs) shed light into the production of acetate esters in the wine yeast Hanseniaspora guilliermondiiPublication . Seixas, Isabel; Santos, Diogo; Vasconcelos, Isabel; Mira, Nuno P.; Mendes-Ferreira, AnaHanseniaspora guilliermondii is a well-recognized producer of acetate esters associated with fruity and floral aromas. The molecular mechanisms underneath this production or the environmental factors modulating it remain unknown. Herein, we found that, unlike Saccharomyces cerevisiae, H. guilliermondii over-produces acetate esters and higher alcohols at low carbon-to-assimilable nitrogen (C:N) ratios, with the highest titers being obtained in the amino acid-enriched medium YPD. The evidences gathered support a model in which the strict preference of H. guilliermondii for amino acids as nitrogen sources results in a channeling of keto-acids obtained after transamination to higher alcohols and acetate esters. This higher production was accompanied by higher expression of the four HgAATs, genes, recently proposed to encode alcohol acetyl transferases. In silico analyses of these HgAat's reveal that they harbor conserved AATs motifs, albeit radical substitutions were identified that might result in different kinetic properties. Close homologues of HgAat2, HgAat3, and HgAat4 were only found in members of Hanseniaspora genus and phylogenetic reconstruction shows that these constitute a distinct family of Aat's. These results advance the exploration of H. guilliermondii as a bio-flavoring agent providing important insights to guide future strategies for strain engineering and media manipulation that can enhance production of aromatic volatiles.