A importância da aprendizagem de valores no processo de desenvolvimento de crianças e jovens institucionalizados

Quando a família falha nas suas responsabilidades, colocando em perigo as suas crianças ou jovens, cabe ao Estado intervir para garantir a proteção e o bem-estar dos mesmos. Das diversas medidas de promoção e proteção de crianças e jovens em perigo, o acolhimento institucional, apesar de ser identificado como a última medida a ser aplicada, acaba por ser uma das mais comuns quando não é possível a manutenção dos menores no seu meio natural de vida. Cabe às instituições de acolhimento assegurar o desenvolvimento e a segurança das crianças e jovens que acolhem, bem como propiciar a sua autonomização. Neste sentido, conseguirá uma instituição de acolhimento transmitir continuamente às suas crianças e jovens os valores adequados promotores de um processo de desenvolvimento integrado e da autonomização? Para responder a esta questão, desenvolvemos um estágio de 900 horas numa Casa de Acolhimento situada no concelho do Porto. O trabalho desenvolvido assentou no recurso permanente à observação participante, que se traduziu na participação ativa e direta nas rotinas diárias das crianças e jovens e no registo permanente das atividades realizadas em notas de campo. Foram ainda utlizadas as técnicas do inquérito (à equipa educativa e às crianças e aos jovens) e da entrevista semiestruturada (à equipa técnica) para recolha de informação relativa à temática central do estágio – a importância dos valores no processo de desenvolvimento. No plano da intervenção, o trabalho centrou-se na implementação de várias atividades lúdico-didáticas com o intuito de trabalhar com os menores institucionalizados a importância dos valores. Através da informação recolhida, e a partir dos resultados provenientes das atividades desenvolvidas, exploramos e analisamos se a presente instituição desenvolve efetivamente um trabalho coerente e contínuo no que toca à transmissão de valores e qual a recetividade destas crianças e jovens na assimilação desses valores transmitidos.When the family fails to fulfill its responsibilities, endangering its children or young people, it is up to the State to intervene to ensure their protection and well-being. Of the various measures to promote and protect children and young people in danger, institutional host, despite being identified as the last measure to be applied, turns out to be one of the most common when it is not possible to keep minors in their natural life environment. It is up to the host institutions to ensure the development and safety of the children and young people they welcome, as well as promote their autonomy. In this sense, will a host institution be able to continuously transmit to its children and young people the appropriate values that promote an integrated development process? To answer this question, we have developed a 900-hour internship in a Host House located in the municipality of Porto. The work was based on the permanent use of participant observation, which resulted in active and direct participation in the daily routines of children and young people and in the permanent record of activities carried out in field notes. The survey techniques (to the educational team and to the children and young people) and the semi-structured interview (to the technical team) were also used to collect information on the central theme of the internship - the importance of values in the development process. At the intervention level, the work focused on the implementation of various ludic-didactic activities in order to work with institutionalized minors the importance of values. Through the collected information and based on the results from the activities developed during the internship, we explored the coherence and the continuity of the work carried out by the institution, analysing its effectivity in the transmission of values to the children and young people and their receptivity and assimilation of this same values

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL XENARTHRANS: a data set of occurrence of xenarthran species in the Neotropics

Xenarthrans—anteaters, sloths, and armadillos—have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across their full distribution ranges. The Neotropics harbor 21 species of armadillos, 10 anteaters, and 6 sloths. Our data set includes the families Chlamyphoridae (13), Dasypodidae (7), Myrmecophagidae (3), Bradypodidae (4), and Megalonychidae (2). We have no occurrence data on Dasypus pilosus (Dasypodidae). Regarding Cyclopedidae, until recently, only one species was recognized, but new genetic studies have revealed that the group is represented by seven species. In this data paper, we compiled a total of 42,528 records of 31 species, represented by occurrence and quantitative data, totaling 24,847 unique georeferenced records. The geographic range is from the southern United States, Mexico, and Caribbean countries at the northern portion of the Neotropics, to the austral distribution in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. Regarding anteaters, Myrmecophaga tridactyla has the most records (n = 5,941), and Cyclopes sp. have the fewest (n = 240). The armadillo species with the most data is Dasypus novemcinctus (n = 11,588), and the fewest data are recorded for Calyptophractus retusus (n = 33). With regard to sloth species, Bradypus variegatus has the most records (n = 962), and Bradypus pygmaeus has the fewest (n = 12). Our main objective with Neotropical Xenarthrans is to make occurrence and quantitative data available to facilitate more ecological research, particularly if we integrate the xenarthran data with other data sets of Neotropical Series that will become available very soon (i.e., Neotropical Carnivores, Neotropical Invasive Mammals, and Neotropical Hunters and Dogs). Therefore, studies on trophic cascades, hunting pressure, habitat loss, fragmentation effects, species invasion, and climate change effects will be possible with the Neotropical Xenarthrans data set. Please cite this data paper when using its data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using these data