Mozambique and natural disasters: human capital under threat

This paper assesses the effect of a sequence of natural disasters on children’s health that hit Mozambique at the start of the 21st Century. The disasters in question were the floods of 2000 and the droughts of the years 2002 and 2003. Height-for-age z-scores of children between 1 and 3 years old is used to capture the cumulative effects of this sequence of natural disasters. It was found that the effect of the disasters on these children’s height was, on average, -0.4236 standard deviations, which corresponds to the affected children being more than 1.5 cm shorter by the time of the survey. The findings in this paper are important because of the long term economic cost associated with the disasters, and urge the need for further public intervention to mitigate the damage caused by the shocks. This paper also contributes to the existing literature on the subject of the impact of shocks on child health in the developing world by focusing on measurement errors, differences in physical stature among ethnic groups and migratory movements.Mozambique; Health; Natural Disaster; Human Capital; Developing Country

Conforming finite elements with embedded strong discontinuities

A kinematically consistent approach for embedded discontinuitie

Modelling the behaviour of the bonding of fibre reinforced concrete at the plate end

Comunicação apresentada em International Symposium Polymers in Concrete (ISPIC 2006), Guimarães, 2006In this paper, the finite element method is used to analyse the behaviour of concrete externally strengthened by fibre reinforced polymers (FRP). This model aims to analyse the stress distribution in the FRP-concrete interface at the plate end of a bending beam. The behaviour of the concrete-poxy-FRP arrangement is modelled with interface elements with initial zero thickness, using a discrete crack approach. A localized damage model is adopted for the interface and a parametric study is performed to approximate the material parameters adopted. The importance of each parameter is assessed. This model is subsequently verified using experimental data collected from the literature. Finally, a proposal is made concerning the adoption of a relation GF II/GF for the interface behaviour. Mention is also made to some of the main mathematical models found in the literature, which are compared to the present approach

Mozambique and natural disasters: human capital under threat

This paper assesses the effect of a sequence of natural disasters on children’s health that hit Mozambique at the start of the 21st Century. The disasters in question were the floods of 2000 and the droughts of the years 2002 and 2003. Height-for-age z-scores of children between 1 and 3 years old is used to capture the cumulative effects of this sequence of natural disasters. It was found that the effect of the disasters on these children’s height was, on average, -0.4236 standard deviations, which corresponds to the affected children being more than 1.5 cm shorter by the time of the survey. The findings in this paper are important because of the long term economic cost associated with the disasters, and urge the need for further public intervention to mitigate the damage caused by the shocks. This paper also contributes to the existing literature on the subject of the impact of shocks on child health in the developing world by focusing on measurement errors, differences in physical stature among ethnic groups and migratory movements

Mozambique and natural disasters: human capital under threat

This paper assesses the effect of a sequence of natural disasters on children’s health that hit Mozambique at the start of the 21st Century. The disasters in question were the floods of 2000 and the droughts of the years 2002 and 2003. Height-for-age z-scores of children between 1 and 3 years old is used to capture the cumulative effects of this sequence of natural disasters. It was found that the effect of the disasters on these children’s height was, on average, -0.4236 standard deviations, which corresponds to the affected children being more than 1.5 cm shorter by the time of the survey. The findings in this paper are important because of the long term economic cost associated with the disasters, and urge the need for further public intervention to mitigate the damage caused by the shocks. This paper also contributes to the existing literature on the subject of the impact of shocks on child health in the developing world by focusing on measurement errors, differences in physical stature among ethnic groups and migratory movements

Complete blood count parameters as biomarkers of retinopathy of prematurity: a Portuguese multicenter study

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Purpose: To evaluate complete blood count (CBC) parameters in the first week of life as predictive biomarkers for the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: Multicenter, prospective, observational study of a cohort of preterm infants born with gestational age (GA) < 32 weeks or birth weight < 1500 g in eight Portuguese neonatal intensive care units. All demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from the first week of life were collected. Univariate logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for ROP and then multivariate regression was performed. Results: A total of 455 infants were included in the study. The median GA was 29.6 weeks, and the median birth weight was 1295 g. One hundred and seventy-two infants (37.8%) developed ROP. Median values of erythrocytes (p < 0.001), hemoglobin (p < 0.001), hematocrit (p < 0.001), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (p < 0.001), lymphocytes (p = 0.035), and platelets (p = 0.003) of the group of infants diagnosed with ROP any stage were lower than those without ROP. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (p = 0.044), red blood cell distribution width (RDW) (p < 0.001), erythroblasts (p < 0.001), neutrophils (p = 0.030), neutrophils-lymphocytes ratio (p = 0.028), and basophils (p = 0.003) were higher in the ROP group. Higher values of MCV, erythroblasts, and basophils remained significantly associated with ROP after multivariate regression. Conclusion: In our cohort, the increase in erythroblasts, MCV, and basophils in the first week of life was significantly and independently associated with the development of ROP. These CBC parameters may be early predictive biomarkers for ROP.Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). This work was supported by the Laboratório de Genética and the Instituto de Saúde Ambiental (ISAMB) of the Faculdade de Medicina of Universidade de Lisboa and the Instituto de Investigação Científica Bento da Rocha Cabral. The writing of the manuscript was also supported by funds from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia to ISAMB (ref. UIDB/04295/2020 and UIDP/04295/2020). This work was also part of a doctoral project funding by the company CUF with a PhD grant in Medicine awarded in 2021 and by the Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology with a PhD grant awarded in 2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Convergência da lei geral do trabalho em funções públicas com o Código do Trabalho : algumas reflexões sobre o tempo de trabalho

Este estudo incide na análise de fatores que se refletiram na convergência da Lei Geral do Trabalho em Funções Públicos com o Código do Trabalho, particularmente em matéria de tempo de trabalho, dando conta das alterações ocorridas na regulação normativa do emprego público face ao emprego privado, e contextualizando a evolução que a esse nível se registou no âmbito das carreiras gerais da Administração Pública. Essa análise é feita a partir de uma resenha histórica sobre a legislação produzida e do enquadramento das fontes jurídicas do Direito aplicáveis ao emprego público e à relação de emprego privado, bem como de alguns fatores extrínsecos que também concorreram para a aproximação desses regimes.This study focuses on the analysis of factors that reflect the convergence of the Labor Law in Public Functions with the Labor Code, particularly in terms of working time, accounting for the changes that occurred in the normative regulation of public employment compared to private employment and contextualizing the evolution that at that level was registered within general careers of Public Administration. This analysis is based on a historical review of the legislation produced and the framework of legal sources of law applicable to public and private work regimes, as well as some extrinsic factors that also contributed to the approximation of these regimes

Evoluçâo da fissuraçâo num túnel de betâo

Neste artigo efectua-se a análise dum túnel de betâo em fundaçâo elástica. A fractura ´e modelada utilizando uma abordagem de fenda discreta baseada no modelo de fenda fictícia de Hillerborg. Os resultados numéricos sâo obtidos pelo método dos elementos finitos. As zonas fracturadas sâo representadas na malha por elementos de interface com espessura inicial nula. A malha de elementos finitos mantém-se fixa durante a análise, nâo se efectuando quaisquer remalhamentos. As fendas abrem ao longo dos elementos de interface em modo I de fractura, isto é, radialmente. O túnel é analisado: a) considerando a resistância à tracçâo do solo e b) desprezando a resistência à tracçâo do solo

Guidance of high-grade cervical intraepithelial lesions in pregnancy

Trabalho Final do Mestrado Integrado em Medicina apresentado à Faculdade de MedicinaIntrodução: O cancro do colo do útero é uma das neoplasias mais frequentemente diagnosticadas durante a gravidez. Esta tem-se mostrado como um momento conveniente para a realização do rastreio, na medida em que a mulher pode ainda não o ter realizado e as lesões intraepiteliais cervicais de alto grau (HSIL) apresentam um pico de incidência em simultâneo à idade reprodutiva. Diversos fatores fisiológicos intrínsecos à gravidez, como alterações no colo do útero e imunossupressão local, tornam difícil a interpretação da citologia e colposcopia, assim como aumentam a possibilidade do risco de evolução das lesões.Objetivos: Este trabalho tem como objetivo definir quais os aspetos clínicos mais significativos para orientação de lesões HSIL durante a gravidez.Metodologia: Foi realizada uma pesquisa de artigos científicos na “PubMed”, publicados entre 2008 e 2018, com os termos MeSH: “Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia”, “Pregnancy outcome”, “Squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix”.Resultados: O diagnóstico precoce de HSIL na gravidez é de extrema importância, pois pode evitar a progressão para doença invasiva. A utilização combinada do uso de biomarcadores (e.g. Ki-67, p16, e glicodelina), juntamente com exames de citologia, genotipagem do HPV e colposcopia, permite um diagnóstico mais preciso, com implicações no controlo destas lesões. Na pesquisa científica realizada está descrita a comparação entre as várias técnicas excisionais e destrutivas, tendo em conta a idade da grávida, profundidade da excisão e complicações da gravidez.Conclusões: O diagnóstico e terapêutica de lesões HSIL durante a gravidez a ser motivo de discussão. Apesar de alguns estudos sugerirem que os procedimentos excisionais são seguros, principalmente no primeiro trimestre da gravidez, a maioria refere que um eventual tratamento pode ser diferido para o pós-parto. Esta opinião, mais consensual, é baseada na elevada taxa de regressão deste tipo de lesões e nas complicações que decorrem durante a gravidez, resultantes da realização de técnicas excisionais.Introduction: Cervical cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed neoplasms during pregnancy. This has been shown to be a convenient time to perform the screening, in so far as the woman has not yet performed it, and high-grade cervical intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) have a peak incidence at the same time as reproductive age. Several physiological factors intrinsic to pregnancy, such as changes in the cervix and local immunosuppression, make it difficult to interpret cytology and colposcopy, as well as increase the possibility of progression of the lesion.Objectives: The aim of this study is to define the most significant clinical aspects concerning the management of HSIL lesions during pregnancy.Methods: A review of scientific articles in PubMed, published between 2008 and 2018, was performed using the follow MeSH terms: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, Pregnancy outcome, Squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix.Results: Early diagnosis of HSIL in pregnancy is extremely important as it may prevent progression to invasive disease. The combined use of biomarkers (eg Ki-67, p16, and glycodelin), together with cytology, HPV genotyping and colposcopy, allows a more accurate diagnosis, with implications for the control of these lesions. The scientific research carried out describes the comparison between the various excisional and destructives techniques, considering the age of the pregnant woman, depth of excision and complications of pregnancy.Conclusions: The diagnosis and treatment of HSIL lesions remains a major subject if clinical discussion. Although some studies suggest that excisional procedures are safe, especially in the first trimester of pregnancy, the majority agree that any treatment may be delayed postpartum. This main consensual view is based on the high rate of regression of this type of lesions and the complications that occur during pregnancy when performing excisional techniques

The Perception of quality and the performance in primary health Care of central Alentejo – Portugal

AbstractQuality and performance are current issues and a strategic priority for the Portuguese National Health Service. Currently, there is a lack of studies in primary health care (PHC) that assess the relationship between the quality and the level of performance of the Primary Health Care Teams. In Portugal, those teams are monitored through the Global Performance Index (GPI), which demonstrates, through a score, the procedures and results obtained by electronic records and the metrics defined for each indicator. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the perception of the quality of health professionals (service culture; leadership; service strategy; infrastructure and external resources; information and knowledge; processes; service management; human resource planning and skills development, commitment; conditions, satisfaction, performance, and recognition; and results) in the different Primary Health Care teams of the PHC of Central Alentejo—Portugal, and the level of performance of the given teams (care performance; professional training; organizational quality; and services). Self-Perception of Quality Questionnaire for Primary Health Care (SPQQ4PHC) was used as an assessment tool. The population comprises 324 health professionals (Family Doctors, Nurses, and Medical Secretaries) distributed over 34 Primary Health Care Teams. When analyzing the global correlation of the variables in the SPQQ4PHC questionnaire with the GPI, it´s possible to confirm that twenty-one out of twenty-five correlates with the GPI. Thus, this study allowed us to conclude that, as health professionals perceive the quality of the variables increases, the GPI also increases, demonstrating that the dimensions of quality and performance are closely related