The aspirations of young people in care and their perspectives on resilience

Young people from a public care background pose the highest risk of economical and social exclusion, are more likely to leave education without any qualifications and many are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) post-education (Harker, 2009; Höjer, Johansson, Hill, Cameron & Jackson, 2008). There have been a number of research studies examining the factors that mediate these outcomes (see Appendix A for a summary in the literature review) and some studies have taken a particular interest in young people who have succeeded “against the odds” or shown resilience to the risk factors in their lives (Jackson, Ajayi & Quigley, 2005). Alongside this, the previous Labour government (Tony Blair 1997-2007; Gordon Brown 2007-2010) made it a high priority to close the gap between the outcomes of Children in Care (CiC) and that of all other children. Part of this agenda was to encourage young people from a care background to enter into further education pathways (for example, the Aim Higher project and recently From Care2Work: National Care Advisory Service (NCAS), 2010), for them to have higher hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future. The literature review for this study revealed that there have been no studies that specifically look at the aspirations of CiC, as such it was felt that this would be a valuable addition to current knowledge. Furthermore, the literature on resilience tended to focus on risk and resilience factors identified in the lives of CiC and not on the lived experiences of the young people, hence it was felt that a valuable contribution to current knowledge would be to use a phenomenological methodology to seek the perspectives of young people in care on resilience. It was felt that by looking in detail at the aspirations and resilience of a group of young people in care, a more holistic perspective could be gained on why the outcomes of CiC are so poor. Consequently, the aims of the first paper were to identify what aspirations young people in care hold, the factors that influenced them and the plans they have to achieve them, as well as what they felt was most important for the development of high aspirations. The aims of the second study were to elicit the positive and negative experiences of a group of young people in care, to determine what strategies these young people used to cope with difficult situations and to map out what factors these young people thought led to good educational and vocational outcomes versus poor outcomes for people who have tough lives. Both studies used data collected from a semi-structured interview with 16 secondary aged and three post 16 young people in the care of one Local Authority. The interview had specific questions related to each of the aims from both studies. All the data collected was qualitative and the analysis used in paper one was thematic analysis, while paper two used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The reason for using two different analyses was because the focus in paper one was to gather information to form a model that could be generalised to all CiC; as such it took a more reductionist approach. The second paper, on the other hand, was focussed on detailing the experiences and perceptions of resilience that young people in care had; as such it sought to show the rich tapestry of their experiences and not to reduce their experiences to the smallest common denominator. The results from paper one showed that the young people did have high aspirations, which varied according to gender and age, and plans to achieve these goals. Most of the young people relied on themselves to develop their aspirations and achieve their goals, however, family, school friends and past personal experiences also played key roles. They felt that personal factors were most important in developing high aspirations, followed by social factors, while education and life events had minor roles. The results of the second study showed that the young people identified supportive networks (peers and adults), education, positive personal qualities, advice and resources, positive experiences (e.g. achievements) and having their basic and emotional needs met as being protective factors that promote resilient outcomes. While poor interactions and relationships, unsupportive adults, experiences of entering care, loss, negative personal qualities, poor education, overwhelming emotions, memories and lack of control over thoughts, life events, and home experiences as being risk factors and promoting poor outcomes. The results of both studies are relevant both on a theoretical level and a practical level. Theoretically, the first study has contributed to the lack of knowledge of how aspirations are formed in CiC. However, further study is needed before a model can be proposed. On a practical level, the results are useful in highlighting to those who work with CiC the areas that influence them in developing aspirations and the factors that are important in developing high aspirations so that support can be targeted in these areas. The second study has contributed to looking at resilience from the perspective of a young person in care, and while the findings are mostly consistent with current knowledge, the emphasis of the young people on ‘self’ helps us to understand the processes of how young people in care cope with and overcome difficulties – that is that they are relying on themselves and so on a practical level either support should focus on making them better equipped at dealing with their difficulties or it should go into creating a more supportive network across the domains and systems that the young people live in

Contested heritage and colonialism in Portugal: a state of cognitive dissonance

ES: Este artículo explora el concepto de patrimonio controvertido, tomando como punto de partida varios episodios presentados recientemente por los medios de comunicación portugueses en los que el patrimonio actuó como desencadenante del debate público sobre el colonialismo portugués. Para ello, este artículo examina cómo pueden definirse, diferenciarse e interconectarse los conceptos de "patrimonio controvertido", "disonancia patrimonial" y "disonancia cognitiva". Se concluye que el patrimonio controvertido que representa el colonialismo portugués funciona como expresión de un estado de disonancia cognitiva y, simultáneamente, como un proceso de búsqueda de consonancia. En este sentido, es fundamental destacar cómo el estado de disonancia cognitiva está activo en las personas implicadas en los procesos de disputa y no en los objetos en sí. Este artículo sostiene que el patrimonio controvertido no debe entenderse como "problemas" que hay que "resolver", sino como una vía para revelar y tratar la complejidad subyacente: qué se disputa, quién lo hace y por qué lo hace.This article explores the concept of contested heritage, taking as a starting point several episodes recently presented by the Portuguese media in which heritage acted as a trigger for the public debate about Portuguese colonialism. We examine how the concepts of "contested heritage", "heritage dissonance", and "cognitive dissonance" can be defined, differentiated, and interconnected, concluding that contested heritage representing Portuguese colonialism functions as an expression of a cognitive dissonance state and, simultaneously, as a consonance-seeking process. In this regard, it is critical to emphasise how a cognitive dissonance state is active in the people involved in the contestation processes and not in the objects themselves. We argue that contested heritage should not be understood as "problems" to be "solved" but as pathways to reveal and deal with the complexity underneath: what is contested, who contests, and why they do so

Climate change in Twitter: the prevalence of media and politics

A 21ª Conferência das Partes (COP21) da Convenção-Quadro das Nações Unidas sobre Mudanças no Clima foi apontada como a mais promissora reunião para um acordo global de combate aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas e redução da emissão de gases de efeito estufa. Este artigo analisa a comunicação sobre as mudanças climáticas no ambiente online durante o período da Conferência. Os temas debatidos nas redes sociais são suscetíveis a afetar o debate de forma ampla e trazem importantes informações a respeito da opinião pública e de percepções sobre as mudanças climáticas (Williams et al., 2015). Para este fim, o trabalho foca-se na popular rede social Twitter, que tem sido apontada como um termômetro da percepção pública (Brown & Wake, 2015). O Twitter tem mais de 310 milhões de utilizadores ativos por mês, dos quais 79% estão fora dos Estados Unidos da América, o que possibilita analisar outros contextos e fomentar a investigação em idiomas sub investigados, como o espanhol e o português. Lança-se um primeiro olhar sobre os usos e conteúdos publicados no Twitter nas línguas mencionadas visando responder às seguintes questões: Que tipo de conteúdos são mais populares no Twitter sobre mudanças climáticas? Qual a linguagem (palavras e nomes) utilizada para se debater o tema? Até que ponto é que a mídia tradicional é referência relevante no contexto da comunicação sobre as mudanças climáticas na rede social? Quem são os atores que formam esta rede e quais são os mais influentes? Conclui-se, entre outros aspectos, que entre os atores da rede se destacam diversos políticos e que a mídia é referência importante de informação nesta rede social. Nos dados em língua portuguesa, constatou-se um nível de atividade muito elevado dos cidadãos, que dominaram a produção de conteúdos sobre a COP21.The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was identified as the most promising summit for a global agreement aiming to combat the effects of climate change and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This article analyses online communications about climate change during the Conference. The subjects discussed in social networks are likely to affect public debates and provide important information regarding public opinion and perceptions of climate change (Williams et al., 2015). This paper focuses on the popular social network Twitter, which has been considered a barometer of public perception (Brown & Wake, 2015). Twitter has more than 310 million active users per month, of which 79% are outside the United States, allowing for analyses of different linguistic contexts, namely underresearched ones, such as Spanish and Portuguese. The study provides an overview of Twitter uses and content in those languages and aims to answer the following research questions: Which type of content about climate change is most popular in Twitter? What kind of language (words and names) is used to discuss this issue? To what extent are traditional media a relevant reference in climate change communication in this social medium? Who are the actors that compose this social network and who are the most influential ones? We conclude, among other things, that several politicians stand out as some the most influential actors and that the media are important sources of information in this social network. In the Portuguese data, the study found a very high level of activity of citizens, who dominated the production of content on COP21.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Did foreign aid help developing countries response to Covid-19?

We study if foreign aid received in the past towards Development and towards the Health sector helped developing countries response to COVID-19, using the number of Cases and Deaths of COVID-19as outcome variables. We find statistically significant evidence that both types of funding have a positive relationship with the number of Cases and Deaths of COVID-19 registered. This result may indicate that countries that receive more funding are also the ones in worse health and development conditions to begin with, and even when receiving higher disbursements, they remain less prepared to fight COVID-19. Because we lack a control for number of tests conducted for COVID-19, another hypothesis is that countries that receive more funding were able to run more tests for COVID-19, resulting in higher records of cases and deaths from the virus

Estudo da estabilidade do éster metilanidroecgonina, marcador de uso do crack, benzoilecgonina e cocaína em urina humana

BACKGROUND: Typically, urine and other biological tissues have been analyzed for cocaine (COC) and/or metabolites to detect COC usage. COC undergoes numerous biotransformation and degradation reactions. Crack smokers are exposed to anhydroecgonine methyl ester (AME), which can be used as an analytical marker for crack smoking. The stability of this analyte in human urine has not been studied. In the body, COC is rapidly converted to metabolites by enzymatic and chemical processes, the major urinary metabolite being benzoylecgonine (BE). OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out in order to determine the effects of time and temperature on the stability of cocaine/crack metabolites in human urine. METHODS : The stability of AME, BE and COC in urine was investigated using samples of urine stored in freezers and refrigerators. The analytes were extracted from urine using a solid-phase extraction technique and analyzed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection method. RESULTS: COC concentrations decreased while BE concentrations increased. AME concentrations remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: The temperature and the duration of storage are decisive in COC hydrolyzing. This study suggests that AME concentrations are not correlated to either storage duration or with storage temperature and AME is more stable than COC.CONTEXTO: Cocaína (COC) e/ou metabólitos tem sido analisados em urina e outros fluidos biológicos para se determinar o uso de COC. A COC está sujeita a numerosas reações de biotransformação e degradação. Indivíduos que fumam crack estão expostos ao éster metilanidroecgonina (AME), que pode ser empregado como marcador de uso desta droga. Não há referências na literatura a respeito da estabilidade deste analito em urina humana. No organismo a COC é rapidamente biotransformada em outros metabólitos por meio de processos químicos e enzimáticos e o principal metabólito urinário é a benzoilecgonina (BE). OBJETIVOS: O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar o efeito do tempo e da temperatura na estabilidade da COC, BE e do AME em urina humana. MÉTODOS: A estabilidade do AME, BE e COC em urina foi investigada por intermédio do armazenamento da urina em freezer e em geladeira. Os analitos foram extraídos pela técnica de extração em fase sólida e analisados por cromatografia gasosa acoplada ao detector por ionização em chama. RESULTADOS: As concentrações de COC decresceram enquanto as BE aumentaram. As concentrações de AME se mantiveram estáveis. CONCLUSÕES: A temperatura e o tempo de armazenamento são decisivos na hidrólise da COC. Este estudo sugere que as concentrações de AME não estão correlacionadas com o tempo ou a temperatura de armazenamento e o AME é mais estável que a COC.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq

Concepções de professores de Língua Portuguesa sobre o(s) uso(s) do manual escolar. Um estudo no 3.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Este texto apresenta os resultados de um estudo sobre concepções de professores de Português do 3.º ciclo do Ensino Básico acerca dos diferentes usos do manual escolar.CIED - UMinhoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functionalized liposome and albumin-based systems as carriers for poorly water-soluble anticancer drugs: an updated review

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In the available treatments, chemotherapy is one of the most used, but has several associated problems, namely the high toxicity to normal cells and the resistance acquired by cancer cells to the therapeutic agents. The scientific community has been battling against this disease, developing new strategies and new potential chemotherapeutic agents. However, new drugs often exhibit poor solubility in water, which led researchers to develop functionalized nanosystems to carry and, specifically deliver, the drugs to cancer cells, targeting overexpressed receptors, proteins, and organelles. Thus, this review is focused on the recent developments of functionalized nanosystems used to carry poorly water-soluble drugs, with special emphasis on liposomes and albumin-based nanosystems, two major classes of organic nanocarriers with formulations already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cancer therapeutics.This work was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT-Portugal) in the framework of the Strategic Funding of CF-UM-UP (UIDB/04650/2020) and CQUM(UIDB/00686/2020), and by funds from FEDER/FCT through the project PTDC/MED-ONC/31354/2017. S. Teixeira acknowledges FCT and FSE (Fundo Social Europeu) through "Programa Operacional Regional Norte" for funding the PhD grant 2020.04975.BD

Nunca se esqueça de que sinto: o olhar de Bernardo Soares no Livro do desassossego

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Análise da postura de uma professora participante de um curso de formação continuada

Neste trabalho, foi analisada a entrevista realizada com uma professora de física, participante dos cursos de formação continuada realizados junto à Rede Estadual de Ensino de Guaratinguetá – SP – Brasil. O propósito de tais cursos foi o de contribuir para a reflexão crítica dos professores acerca de sua própria prática, mediante uma abordagem que viabilizasse o desenvolvimento da sua autonomia. Para tanto, nesses cursos, foram abordados os aspectos teórico metodológicos que fundamentam a interação em sala de aula, mediada pela utilização de diferentes estratégias de ensino. Os resultados deste trabalho mostraram que a participação da referida professora nesses cursos contribuiu para o aprimoramento e a reflexão da sua prática, o que viabilizou a construção da sua autonomia