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Editorial

Editoria

Literacy in the cooperative sector evaluated through the reserve for cooperative education and training

This study aims to evaluate the degree of legal-accounting literacy in cooperatives, having as an indicator the reserve for cooperative education and training, since this reserve is exclusive to the legal regime of cooperatives and which, due to its very specific purposes, presented itself as a mechanism that seeks to prevent or eliminate possible phenomena of illiteracy. This reserve ? which implements the cooperative principle of education, training and information ? addresses members, leaders and workers and aims to contribute to the development of the cooperative, by allowing the education of cooperators, an active membership, the professionalization of the employees and members of the management and supervisory bodies, as well as raising community awareness of the advantages of the cooperative model. The empirical study has shown that, in Portugal, there are cooperatives that do not have established the reserve for cooperative education and training or, despite having established the reserve, admit possibilities that the law does not allow, namely both the destination of the reserve as well as its sources, and even its distribution. In addition, cooperatives are not adequately accounting for this reserve. There is, therefore, a significant degree of legal and accounting illiteracy regarding the reserve for cooperative education and training, which difficult or limits the achievement of its purposes.

Integrated reporting and corporate social responsibility in the context of social economy (Mutual associations in the health and welfare sector)

Este estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar si el informe integrado puede ser considerado el instrumento adecuado para la divulgación del comportamiento socialmente responsable de las entidades de economía social (EES), ya que se enfrentan actualmente a una demanda de transparencia creciente, por las partes interesadas/ por los interesados. A partir de un análisis del concepto y de los principios de la responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC), con el término de triple bottom line, de la economía social y del marco legal de las mutuas, se procede con un estudio empírico sobre la asociación mutua portuguesa (sector de Salud y Bienestar). Complementariamente, se presenta una propuesta de un sistema de informe integrado adecuado para mostrar el comportamiento social responsable de la organización y la búsqueda del interés general, concluyendo que las dificultades de divulgación sobre aspectos económicos, sociales y ambientales se superan adecuadamente. Se propone además la adopción obligatoria, para el futuro, del informe integrado en las EES, para transmitir una información dinámica, actualizada y relevante para los stakeholders

Transparência das Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social na Região Autónoma da Madeira - Estudo empírico

By legal imposition, Private Institutions of Social Solidarity need to strengthen the requirements of transparency regarding the activities they perform and the resources they use. The financial year accounts of these institutions comply with the accounting standardisation system for non- profit organizations and must be published on their institutional website by 31 May of the following year to which they relate (article 14-A of Decree-Law 172-A/2014, of 14 November). The main objective of this study is to analyse the level of transparency of the Private Institutions of Social Solidarity in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM). To this end, an empirical study was carried out, having as target population eighty-five entities, registered in that region and with the Private Institution of Social Solidarity status. Methodologically, two research methods were combined, the quantitative and the qualitative methods, to assess the degree of transparency of these organizations in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The results showed that there are organizations that, despite having a website, still do not publish their annual reports. This is a worrying situation, since many of the organisations do not comply with the legal requirements imposed in the last amendment of their Statutes, with resulting penalties, namely the suspension of State support and the impossibility of signing cooperation agreements.Por imposição legal, as Instituições Privadas de Solidariedade Social (IPSS) necessitam de reforçar as exigências da transparência relativamente às atividades que realizam e aos recursos que utilizam. As contas do exercício destas instituições obedecem ao regime da normalização contabilística para as Entidades do Setor Não Lucrativo, devendo ser publicadas obrigatoriamente no seu sítio institucional eletrónico até ao dia 31 de maio do ano seguinte a que dizem respeito (art.o 14.o-A do Decreto-Lei n.o 172-A/2014, de 14 de novembro). O objetivo principal deste trabalho é o de analisar qual o nível de transparência das IPSS na Região Autónoma da Madeira (RAM). Para o efeito realizou-se um estudo empírico, tendo como população-alvo oitenta e cinco entidades, registadas naquela região e com o estatuto de IPSS. Metodologicamente, conjugaram- se dois métodos de investigação, o método quantitativo e o método qualitativo para aferir o grau de transparência destas entidades na RAM. Os resultados mostraram que existem entidades que, mesmo tendo site, continuam a não publicar os seus relatórios de contas. É uma situação preocupante, uma vez que muitas das entidades não cumprem os requisitos legais impostos na última alteração dos seus Estatutos, com penalizações daí decorrentes, nomeadamente a suspensão dos apoios do Estado e a impossibilidade de celebrar acordos de cooperação

Determinants of antenatal care utilization – contacts and screenings – in São Tome e Principe: a hospital-based cross-sectional 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/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Background: Sao Tome & Principe (STP) has a high peri-neonatal mortality rate and access to high-quality care before childbirth has been described as one of the most effective means of reducing it. The country has a gap in the coverage-content of antenatal care (ANC) services that must be addressed to better allocate resources to ultimately improve maternal and neonatal health. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the determinants for adequate ANC utilization considering the number and timing of ANC contacts and screening completion. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was undertaken among women admitted for delivery at Hospital Dr. Ayres de Menezes (HAM). Data were abstracted from ANC pregnancy cards and from a structured face-to-face interviewer-administered questionnaire. ANC utilization was classified as partial vs adequate. Adequate ANC utilization was defined as having ANC 4 or more contacts, first trimester enrolment plus one or more hemoglobin tests, urine, and ultrasound. The collected data were entered into QuickTapSurvey and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify determinants of adequate ANC utilization at P-value < 0.05. Results: A total of 445 mothers were included with a mean age of 26.6 ± 7.1, an adequate ANC utilization was identified in 213 (47.9%; 95% CI: 43.3-52.5) and a partial ANC utilization in 232 (52.1%; 95% CI: 47.5-56.7). Age 20-34 [AOR 2.27 (95% CI: 1.28-4.04), p = 0.005] and age above 35 [AOR 2.5 (95% CI: 1.21-5.20), p = 0.013] when comparing with women aged 14-19 years, urban residence [AOR 1.98 (95% CI: 1.28-3.06), p < 0.002], and planned pregnancy [AOR 2.67 (95% CI: 1.6-4.2), p < 0.001] were the determinants of adequate ANC utilization. Conclusion: Less than half of the pregnant women had adequate ANC utilization. Maternal age, residence and type of pregnancy planning were the determinants for adequate ANC utilization. Stakeholders should focus on raising awareness of the importance of ANC screening and engaging more vulnerable women in earlier utilization of family planning services and choosing a pregnancy plan, as a key strategy to improve neonatal health outcomes in STP.AV was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (https://www.fct.pt/index.phtml.pt/), grant number SFRH/BD/117037/2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Cross-Sectional Study

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Alexandra Vasconcelos et al.Background. Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) are a public health problem in developing countries such as Sao Tome and Principe (STP) although the pregnancy burden of IPIs is unknown in this endemic country. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of IPIs, prescribed anthelmintics, and associated factors among pregnant women admitted to Hospital Dr. Ayres de Menezes (HAM). Methods. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women admitted to the HAM who had undergone antenatal copro-parasitological screening. Data were abstracted from antenatal care (ANC) cards regarding parasitological results and anthelmintic prescriptions. A structured questionnaire face-to-face interview was also applied. Pregnant women with an IPI (210) were compared to noninfected women (151). Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25.0. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for factors associated with IPIs were estimated using multiple logistic regression models. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. A total of 361 participants (210 IPI and 151 no-IPI) with a mean age of 26.96 (SD: 7.00) were included. The overall prevalence of IPI was 58.2% (95% CI 52.9 to 63.3), mainly due to helminthiasis, with a 55.9% (95% CI 50.7-61.2%) rate. Ascaris lumbricoides (90.9%) was the most predominant parasite species identified followed by Trichuris trichiura (13.8%). Polyparasitism was observed in 25 cases (11.9%). Anthelmintics were prescribed to 23% of pregnant women. S intercalatum (11) and E histolytica (7) infections were not adequately treated. IPI was significantly associated with primary education (AOR 1.73 (95% CI: 1.10-2.71)), unemployment (AOR 1.94 (95% CI: 1.20-3.13)), and parity of five or above (AOR 3.82 (95% CI: 1.32-11.08)). Conclusion. This study highlights the IPI burden, associated factors, and missing treatment opportunities among pregnant women with STP. This study is a useful tool for policymakers in STP to enhance the health of women and their unborn babies.publishersversionpublishe

Prophylactic outcomes of casbane diterpene in Candida albicans and Candida glabrata biofilms

Biofilms are surface associated communities of microorganisms embedded within a self-produced extracellular matrix and adhered on inert and biotic surfaces. These biological consortia are considered the most prevalent growth form of microorganisms. Biofilm formation is a potent virulence factor for a number of Candida species, as it confers significant tolerance to antimicrobial therapy, primarily by limiting the penetration of substances through the biofilm matrix. Casbane Diterpenes (CD) belongs to the class of diterpenoids isolated from few species of plants from Euphorbiaceae family with important anticancer and antibacterial activities. So, the goal of this study was to assess the antibiofilm effect of a Casbane Diterpene isolated from the stalks of Croton nepetaefolius against Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. Biofilms were developed within the 96- well microtiterplates in the presence of the CD. After 24 hours of growth, 100 μL of cells suspensions (1 x 106 cells ml-1 in Nutrient Broth) and 100 μL of solution of CD (500 - 31.5 μg/mL) were pipetted into each well and incubated for 24 h at 37ºC in an orbital shaker at 120 rpm. Biofilms formation was characterized by total biomass, through crystal violet (CV), and number of viable cells, expressed as log CFU per cm2. CD showed to be able to reduce the biofilm formation of C. albicans and C. glabrata. CD reduced C. albicans biomass in 82, 64, 57 and 27 % at the concentrations of 500, 250, 125 and 62.5 μg/mL, respectively. C. glabrata biomass was reduced in 68 and 26 % at 500 and 250 μg/mL. Regarding the number of viable cells embedded in the yeast biofilms, CD at 500 and 250 μg/mL reduced 2 and 1 log of C. albicans biofilm CFUs, and 2.5 and 1 log for C. glabrata, respectively. Regarding the high resistance and recalcitrance of Candida biofilms to the traditional therapies, CD emerges as a good prophylactic alternative to be used alone or in combination with other traditional drugs

Factors associated with perinatal and neonatal deaths in Sao Tome & Principe: a prospective cohort study

BackgroundNeonatal mortality reduction is a global goal, but its factors are seldom studied in most resource-constrained settings. This is the first study conducted to identify the factors affecting perinatal and neonatal deaths in Sao Tome &amp; Principe (STP), the smallest Central Africa country.MethodsInstitution-based prospective cohort study conducted at Hospital Dr. Ayres Menezes. Maternal-neonate dyads enrolled were followed up after the 28th day of life (n = 194) for identification of neonatal death-outcome (n = 22) and alive-outcome groups (n = 172). Data were collected from pregnancy cards, hospital records and face-to-face interviews. After the 28th day of birth, a phone call was made to evaluate the newborn's health status. Crude odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were obtained. A p value &lt;0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe mean gestational age of the death-outcome and alive-outcome groups was 36 (SD = 4.8) and 39 (SD = 1.4) weeks, respectively. Death-outcome group (n = 22) included sixteen stillbirths, four early and two late neonatal deaths. High-risk pregnancy score [cOR 2.91, 95% CI: 1.18–7.22], meconium-stained fluid [cOR 4.38, 95% CI: 1.74–10.98], prolonged rupture of membranes [cOR 4.84, 95% CI: 1.47–15.93], transfer from another unit [cOR 6.08, 95% CI:1.95–18.90], and instrumental vaginal delivery [cOR 8.90, 95% CI: 1.68–47.21], were factors significantly associated with deaths. The odds of experiencing death were higher for newborns with infectious risk, IUGR, resuscitation maneuvers, fetal distress at birth, birth asphyxia, and unit care admission. Female newborn [cOR 0.37, 95% CI: 0.14–1.00] and birth weight of more than 2,500 g [cOR 0.017, 95% CI: 0.002–0.162] were found to be protective factors.ConclusionFactors such as having a high-risk pregnancy score, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, prolonged rupture of membranes, being transferred from another unit, and an instrumental-assisted vaginal delivery increased 4– to 9–fold the risk of stillbirth and neonatal deaths. Thus, avoiding delays in prompt intrapartum care is a key strategy to implement in Sao Tome &amp; Principe

Extensão aos Açores

A presente investigação aborda uma temática atual e em desenvolvimento na Guarda Nacional Republicana, designadamente a necessidade de expansão e edificação do Sistema Integrado de Vigilância Comando e Controlo na Região Autónoma dos Açores, tendo por desiderato analisar a capacitação estratégica do sistema. Com recurso a uma análise dos vetores de capacidade Doutrina, Organização, Formação, Material, Liderança, Pessoal, Infraestruturas e Interoperabilidade, à luz do conceito de capacitação da NATO e UE, identificam-se as potencialidades e oportunidades institucionais, bem como dos constrangimentos e áreas a desenvolver. Através de uma revisão detalhada da literatura e da realização de entrevistas, foram apurados resultados que apontam para a necessidade de melhorias nos vetores de capacidade Pessoal, Treino e Organização, prosseguindo o desenvolvimento de novas capacidades e afetação de recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros. Assente nestes pressupostos, os resultados projetam uma estratégia de crescimento definindo-se o conjunto de opções estratégicas que garantem a sua operacionalizaçãoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio