MEREC - Guarda: An Energy and Resource Efficiency Process undermined by the early stages of a democratic setting.

This article focuses on the historical background which lead to the implementation of an EUA programme in a European country; a programme designed for developing countries. To that end, we seek to discern, how 1980's Managing Energy and Resource Efficient Cities (MEREC) methodology has perpetuated in urban planning and architecture practice as well as in the discourses of its stakeholders. Guarda is a medieval border town (1050m) in the hinterland of Portugal, far away from the impact of metropolitan areas, such as Lisbon or Porto. Guarda kept a balanced urban growth over the years, but demography and key sectors of the economy changed profoundly after the Portuguese democratic revolution (1974). Serving as an early experience towards city resilience and sustained development, MEREC was a programme developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Inspired by the work of Richard Meier (1974), MEREC answered to the growing concerns triggered by the 1970s energy crisis and its consequences. Amid a rapid urbanisation and population growth, increased energy costs and pressure on natural resources, MEREC targeted cities in developing countries which could adopt preventive approaches towards resource efficiency. However, instead of concentrating its efforts on metropolitan areas, MEREC aimed at the development of secondary cities, where most of the growth had yet to come.From 1983 to 1985, MEREC established a comprehensive planning process, involving Guarda Municipality, central and regional agencies and the know-how of Portuguese universities and private consultants. MEREC identified the city's problems in water supply, urban waste, urban management, changes in local building materials used and scattered urbanisation. Several of these problems had been overcome with the project's completion, the development of Guarda's master plan, research technology, and awareness campaigns.USAID-MEREC advisors considered the results achieved in Guarda as rewarding. Architect Maria Castro (1989) points out the clarity achieved in the decision-making processes for urban planning and management during the MEREC programme. However, as she notes, discourses and institutional support changed after MEREC. MEREC’s methodology was somehow thrown away, suggesting a lack of planning culture among local political powers, unwilling to redirect resources. MEREC happened ten years after Portugal's dictatorship had ended, when the country was committed to the world as a democratic country, facing political and economical instability until its accession to the European Economic Union (EEC), as well as, undergoing deep socio-cultural transformations and striving for development. From 1986 onwards, MEREC programme was hampered by a democratic setting that aimed for development in more immediate ways, regardless of the resource-efficiency strategy proposed

A case study of ergonomics encompassing white-collar workers: anthropometry, furniture dimensions, working posture and musculoskeletal disorders

Regardless of their specific business, white collar workers have some factors in common: they work seated without moving for a long time, they use certain arm and hand muscles excessively, and they tend to keep a poor body posture. The resulting Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) produce discomfort, and even pain. This study aimed at an ergonomic assessment of white collars of a Portuguese company – to identify the most critical points in old furniture designs and working posture habits. An evaluation was done in the administrative department using a random sample; the anthropometric and furniture measurements were taken and compared. The RULA method was used to evaluate the risk arising from adoption of a poor posture at the workplace. The results obtained show a prevalence of symptoms of MSDs. The furniture is oversized in most cases. Adoption of a poor posture at the workplace requires a short-term intervention. There is a significant association between MSDs and wrong-dimensioned furniture, besides habit to adopt wrong postures. This company (as many other SME’s) must change the old style office furniture by one with dimensions matching workers’ anthropometry, and provide training on best practices to maintain good posture at workinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

As mudanças organizacionais em tempos de pandemia COVID-19: Um estudo de caso no Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, no Funchal

A COVID-19 veio requerer mudanças nos serviços de saúde num curto período de tempo. Em geral, os serviços de saúde tiveram de se adaptar a novas circunstâncias e o Hospital Nélio Mendonça, o objeto desta tese enquanto estudo de caso, não foi exceção. A dimensão temporal deste estudo é de um ano e meio, a contar de março de 2020 a setembro de 2021. O quadro de referência para a realização deste estudo inclui a literatura sobre as organizações altamente fiáveis, a coordenação relacional e a aprendizagem organizacional. A análise efetuada mostra que o Hospital Nélio Mendonça respondeu à pandemia através de nove dimensões agregadas, sendo elas a preocupação com a falha, o comprometimento com a resiliência, a deferência com a expertise, sensibilidade às operações, relações de partilha e respeito mútuo, comunicação de elevada qualidade, desenvolvimento de sistemas de partilha de informação e aprendizagem organizacional. Estas nove dimensões agregadas combinam fatores que trazem vantagens competitivas para o HNM no combate à pandemia da COVID-19. No essencial, estas mudanças podem ser explicadas pelo quadro teórico usado no presente estudo. Em suma, as mudanças organizacionais registadas foram, na sua maioria, positivas e ajudaram o HNM e os seus profissionais nesta missão de combate à pandemia.COVID-19 required changes in health services in a short period of time. In general, health services had to adapt to new circumstances and Hospital Nélio Mendonça, the object of this thesis as a case study, was no exception. The temporal dimension of this study is a year and a half, from March 2020 to September 2021. The frame of reference for conducting this study includes the literature on highly reliable organizations, relational coordination and organizational learning. The analysis carried out shows that Hospital Nélio Mendonça responded to the pandemic through nine aggregated dimensions, namely concern with failure, commitment to resilience, deference to expertise, sensitivity to operations, sharing relationships and mutual respect, communication quality, development of information sharing systems and organizational learning. These nine aggregate dimensions combine factors that bring competitive advantages to the HNM in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In essence, these changes can be explained by the theoretical framework used in this study. In short, the organizational changes recorded were mostly positive and helped the HNM and its professionals in this mission to fight the pandemic

Synthesis of Novel 1-Aryl-9H-xanthen-9-ones

A novel route for the synthesis of 1-aryl-9H-xanthen-9-ones is reported. This methodology involves the condensation of 2-methylchromone with cinammaldehydes leading to (E,E)-2-(4-arylbuta-1,3-dien-1-yl)-4H-chromen-4-ones. The final step was the electrocyclization and oxidation reactions of the latter compounds, in an one-pot synthesis, giving the desired 1-aryl-9H-xanthen-9-ones

Disparidades na distribuição geográfica de recursos de saúde em Portugal

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia e Política da SaúdeUm dos principais objetivos dos sistemas de saúde é a redução das desigualdades, em particular as que estão associadas ao nível socioeconómico das populações, o que implica conhecer a dimensão e a sua natureza das desigualdades no acesso, resultados e financiamento de saúde. A desigualdade está fortemente relacionada com a distribuição dos recursos de saúde, em particular dos recursos públicos. O acesso aos cuidados de saúde tem um papel fundamental nos sistemas de saúde públicos para a prossecução dos objetivos de maior eficiência e equidade. Compreender a distribuição dos recursos de saúde, em particular os recursos do Serviço Nacional de Saúde, é um dos aspetos relevantes para a compreensão do acesso e da equidade. A análise feita no presente estudo centra-se na distribuição geográfica dos recursos e na sua desigualdade geográfica e baseia-se na construção e interpretação de índices de desigualdade frequentemente utilizados na literatura, a saber: índice de Gini, índice de dissimilaridade, coeficiente de variação, razão de taxas e diferença de taxas. Os dados recolhidos são provenientes da base de dados do INE (www.ine.pt) e englobam os 308 concelhos de Portugal continental e ilhas. Estes dados correspondem ao último ano disponível, 2009 ou 2010 conforme as variáveis. Os resultados obtidos com base nas medidas de desigualdade mostram fortes assimetrias geográficas na distribuição dos recursos de saúde em Portugal e sugerem que o sistema está longe de alcançar o objetivo de equidade no acesso. Concluiu-se que existem áreas geográficas com elevada concentração de recursos. A concentração é maior nos concelhos urbanos e no litoral. Em contrapartida existe uma falta acentuada de recursos nos concelhos mais rurais do interior. Através deste padrão de distribuição, verificou-se que não existe uma relação entre a taxa de envelhecimento da população e a disponibilidade de recursos de saúde.One of the main objectives of the health systems is the reduction of the inequities, in particular those related to socioeconomic background, hence, it is important to know its size and nature. The inequality is strongly associated with the distribution of health resources, particularly of public resources. The access to health care has a key role in the health care systems, and in pursuing their objectives of a greater efficiency and equity. Understanding the distribution of health resources, specifically the resources of the National Health Service is one of the most relevant aspects the understanding of the access and equity. This analysis is focused on the geographical distribution of resources and is based on the construction and interpretation of inequality indexes commonly used in literature, namely: the Gini index, dissimilarity index, coefficient of variation, rate ratio and rate difference. The data have been collected from the database INE (www.ine.pt) and include the 308 municipalities of Portugal mainland and islands. The obtained values are measured up with the last year available, 2009 or 2010 depending on the variables. The results based on the measures of inequality show that there is no equality in the distribution of resources in Portugal and suggest that the system is far from achieving the goal of equal access. It was concluded that the higher concentrations of resources are located in urban municipalities near the seacoast. However there is a pronounced lack of resources in the most rural municipalities. Through this pattern, there is not a relation between the aging rate and the availability of heath care resources

Escola e imigração : integração de crianças do leste europeu na escola do 1.º ciclo

Dissertação de Mestrado em Estudos da Criança (Associativismo e Animação Sócio-Cultural)A perspectiva multi/intercultural defende uma educação onde a diversidade não é simplesmente constatada, mas também incluída e valorizada no currículo e nas práticas pedagógicas. Na sequência desta ideia o papel dos docentes, no contexto multicultural, revela-se de extrema importância para a inter-relação entre diferentes culturas. Esta tese descreve um estudo de caso centrado na integração de crianças imigrantes, mais concretamente com origem no Leste da Europa, na escola do 1º ciclo. Tendo por base teórica a educação multi/intercultural, analisa a resposta da comunidade escolar à diversidade cultural dos/as discentes. Foi realizada uma observação a fim de compreender a forma como os professores interpretam e vivem a diversidade discente e quais as suas maiores dificuldades. Tenta-se também esclarecer o modo como os/as discentes do Leste europeu sentem e vivem a escola em Portugal. Adicionalmente, o estudo tenta identificar quais as suas maiores dificuldades de integração, bem como as perspectivas de futuro. Tenta-se compreender se a heterogeneidade é considerada uma mais valia para a educação ou um obstáculo para o processo de ensino/aprendizagem.The multi/intercultural perspective advocates an education where the diversity is not simply realised, but also included and valued in the curriculum and teaching practices. Following this idea, the role of teachers within the multicultural context reveals to be of extreme importance for the interrelationship between different cultures. This thesis describes a case study focusing the integration of immigrant children, especially from the Eastern Europe, in the 1st grade school. Having the multi/intercultural education as basis, it analyses the school community’s response to the students’ cultural diversity. An observation was engaged in order to understand how the teachers interpret and live the students’ diversity and what their greatest difficulties are. The observation also tries to clarify how the students of Eastern Europe feel and live the school in Portugal. Additionally, the study tries to identify their greatest difficulties of integration as well as the perspectives for the future. Attempts are made to understand if the heterogeneity is considered more valuable for education or an obstacle to the process of teaching/learning

Oral hygiene and health education: implications for public health

Dental caries, a progressive infection caused by microorganisms, remain one of the most common diseases throughout the world. The mouth is an ideal environment for bacteria, and one of the best-known for being responsible for dental caries is the Streptococcus mutans.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differential tissue accumulation in the invasive Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, under two environmentally relevant lanthanum concentrations

Among the environmental emerging concern rare earth elements, lanthanum (La) is one of the most common and reactive. Lanthanum is widely used in numerous modern technologies and applications, and its intense usage results in increasing discharges into the environment, with potentially deleterious consequences to earthlings. Therefore, we exposed the important food resource and powerful monitoring tool Manila clam to two environmentally relevant concentrations of La (0.3 µg L−1 and 0.9 µg L−1) for 6 days, through water, to assess the bioaccumulation pattern in the gills, digestive gland, and remaining body. The La bioaccumulation was measured after 1 (T1), 2 (T2), and 6 (T6) days of exposure. Lanthanum was bioaccumulated after 2 days, and the levels increased in all tissues in a dose-dependent manner. When exposed to 0.3 µg L−1, the enrichment factor pattern was gills > body > digestive gland. However, when exposed to 0.9 µg L−1, the pattern appears to change to gills > digestive gland > body. Tissue portioning appears to be linked with exposed concentration: In higher exposure levels, digestive gland seems to gain importance, probably associated with detoxification mechanisms. Here, we describe for the first time La bioaccumulation in these different tissues in a bivalve species. Future studies dealing with the bioaccumulation and availability of La should connect them with additional water parameters (such as temperature, pH, and major cations).Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio