Economic and financial performance model for private social solidarity institutions

The main goal of this work project is to build a model which would allow the user to evaluate the economic and financial performance of Private Social Solidarity Institutions, a particular group of the not-for-profit organizations. The model is composed by a quantitative and qualitative part and provides an output in the form of a score (between O1 and O5) aiming, not to measure the default risk, but to evaluate the financial health and sustainability of these organizations

Dissecting heat and drought tolerance in wheat and maize using plant systems biology

Population growth and climate change pose serious threats to food security. Heat and drought are major abiotic constraints to crop production and their co-occurrence will increase during the cropping season in several regions. However, there is a lack of studies investigating their combined effect in crop physiological and biochemical processes. Aiming to close this gap, two of the main crops were investigated, wheat and maize, under these conditions. In the first results chapter, it is shown that these co-occurring stresses equally affect the photosynthetic efficiency of genotypes adapted to Mexico (Sokoll) and the UK (Paragon). However, Paragon recovered faster upon stress relief due to an increased PSII photoprotection and cytosolic Invertase activity, suggesting that optimal sucrose export/utilization and increased electron transport machinery photoprotection are essential to limit wheat yield fluctuations under these conditions. In the second results chapter, by studying maize genotypes with contrasting drought or heat tolerance, it was observed that limited transpiration under high temperature allowed water saving upon deficit without decreasing photosynthetic efficiency. This was sustained by higher phosphorylated PEPC and electron transport rate. Limited transpiration rate and synchronized regulation of the C4 carbon assimilation metabolism showed to be key traits for drought and heat tolerance in maize. In the third results chapter, by screening ten wheat genotypes with different tolerance to drought or heat, it was observed that leaf temperature and evapotranspiration expressed significant genotype-environment interactions. Low leaf number and transpiration efficiency were essential to balance water-saving strategies and biomass production. Changes in the carbohydrate (cytosolic Invertase, Hexokinase, Phosphofructokinase) and antioxidant metabolism (Peroxidases, phenolic compounds) were associated with tolerance mechanisms. Altogether, these results expand our knowledge about crops metabolic responses to high temperature and water deficit. These findings can be further explored in breeding programs to improve crop resilience to climate change and meet food security

On the Globalization of Political Power and the Added Relevance of Institutions in Contexts of Multifaceted Populism. Illustrated with Recourse to a Case Study of the Portuguese Justice System

This paper is an essay on the problematic of the globalization of political power and on the increased relevance of institutions in contexts of multifaceted populism. A case study of the Portuguese justice system was used to illustrate the arguments presented. First, the Troika intervention in Portugal is offered as an instance of globalization of political power. Secondly, a model of argumentation analysis of political parties is used to contend that the media coverage of the discourse about austerity during the period of external intervention constituted what can be called multifaceted populism. Finally, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy is presented as an example of the decisive and increased role that institutions can play in times of crisis by presenting a factual and dispassionate vision of the results obtained at the level of public policies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New Eyes for an Old Challenge: How the Portuguese Ministry of Justice is Using Sankey Diagrams to Improve Knowledge on the Judicial System Dynamics

For almost a decade Portugal has focused on the continuous advances of its judicial system. This professional article aims to illustrate how the Portuguese Ministry of Justice is using Sankey Diagram to improve knowledge on the Portuguese Judicial System, showing undeniable enhancements in the last decade. Based on the Portuguese experience, the text provides a concise and straightforward contribution to the justice sector by means of shared know-how and aims at inspiring other judicial systems to seek continuous improvements by implementing this uncommon technique.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contribution to the validation of the conceptual model of the global satisfaction of the users in the Portuguese military health services

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an important measure in assessing the performance of public health systems. However, at the level of Portuguese military health services, studies that assess user satisfaction are limited. To this end, the global satisfaction evaluation model is widely used and it seems to gather consensus among the international scientific community, but studies that determine its validity in the users of the Portuguese military health services are not known. Objectives: In 2016, it was tried to determine the validity of the conceptualization model of the European version of the global satisfaction of the users, as well as to evaluate the satisfaction index of the users, within the health service of the School of Arms of the Portuguese Army. Method: In December 2016, according to a cross-sectional observational study, a sample of 262 patients was assessed using the European Customer Satisfaction Index. Data analysis was performed using structural equations. Results: With regard to the evaluation of the proposed model, there was an index of goodness of adjustment of 0.815. Model was able to explain about 83.7% of the observations and a degree of representation for most of the observed variables (adjusted R2) between 0.3 e 0.9. It was also found that the size of the effect of latent variables on the explanation of another latent variable (F2) was greater than 0.35. It was also determined, with 95% certainty and type I error probability of 0.0000, an average of satisfaction of users of 6.8 values. Discussion: The evaluation of the quality of the proposed model suggests that the results obtained are robust and representative of the study population. With a margin of error of 5%, it was also verified that the global satisfaction index obtained is high. Conclusion: The proposed model of user satisfaction assessment is globally valid and adequate to the context of the School of Arms health services. Already the global satisfaction index of users seems to follow the trend observed in public health services in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Teletrabalho e o futuro pós covid-19: estudo de caso do ministério da justiça de Portugal

This article aims to summarize the principal results obtained from a study of Portuguese Ministry of Justice employees (including courts employees) regarding telework. Employees’ perceptions were assessed concerning both the COVID-19 confinement (started at the end of March 2020) and post-COVID-19 scenarios. A quantitative approach was used and data was collected by the Directorate General for Justice Policy (DGPJ), Ministry of Justice, Portugal, through questionnaires applied online, between the 23rd and 30th of April 2020. It was possible to obtain 2,373 answers, from workers of 11 different entities (including courts workers). The authors explore the assessment of the transition into telework, the perception of quality and intensity of work performance (telework versus in person), the willingness to continue teleworking after the COVID-19 pandemic for employees already teleworking and the willingness to start teleworking after the COVID-19 pandemic for employees currently not teleworking. Results show the potential for more permanent change, beyond the COVID-19 crisis management. The authors encourage both the academic and praxis justice international communities to conduct, collect and share similar research both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to amass a data historic that might be useful in the next crisis and inform a host of current debates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spam email filtering using network-level properties

Spam is serious problem that affects email users (e.g. phishing attacks, viruses and time spent reading unwanted messages). We propose a novel spam email filtering approach based on network-level attributes (e.g. the IP sender geographic coordinates) that are more persistent in time when compared to message content. This approach was tested using two classifiers, Naive Bayes (NB) and Support Vector Machines (SVM), and compared against bag-of-words models and eight blacklists. Several experiments were held with recent collected legitimate (ham) and non legitimate (spam) messages, in order to simulate distinct user profiles from two countries (USA and Portugal). Overall, the network-level based SVM model achieved the best discriminatory performance. Moreover, preliminary results suggests that such method is more robust to phishing attacks.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/EIA/64541/200

Aleitamento materno e obesidade em crianças pré-escolares

O aleitamento materno é um processo, aparentemente fisiológico inerente à espécie humana mas que é condicionado por aspectos sociais, culturais e históricos. A prática da amamentação não é instintiva, implica aprendizagem por parte da mulher e protecção da sociedade. O aleitamento materno é um dos factores preponderantes na alimentação das crianças que permeiam a relação mãe-filho. A Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) na tentativa de uniformizar conceitos relativos à prática da amamentação, definiu diferentes categorias de aleitamento materno, das quais salientamos: Aleitamento materno: quando a criança recebe leite materno (directo da mama ou ordenhado), independentemente de receber ou não outros alimentos; Aleitamento materno exclusivo: quando a criança recebe somente leite materno, directo da mama ou ordenhado, ou leite humano de outra fonte, sem outros líquidos ou sólidos, com excepção de gotas ou xaropes contendo vitaminas, sais de reidratação oral, suplementos minerais ou medicamentos. A OMS recomenda o aleitamento materno exclusivo nos primeiros seis meses de vida e o aleitamento materno até aos dois anos ou mais. Objectivos: Investigar a relação do aleitamento materno na obesidade infantil. Metodologia: Estudo epidemiológico de corte transversal com 240 crianças entre os 2 e os 6 anos de idade residentes no Concelho de Bragança. A variável de exposição foi o aleitamento materno, sendo consideradas expostas as crianças que receberam aleitamento materno exclusivo durante um período de tempo inferior a 4 meses. Foi definido sobrepeso/obesidade como o Índice de Massa Corporal (IMC) para a idade igual ou superior ao percentil 85. Foram usadas como referência as curvas e as tabelas de percentis do IMC da Direcção Geral de Saúde para crianças de dois a vinte anos de idade, de acordo com o sexo e a idade. O processo de recolha de dados foi realizado por dois dos investigadores em colaboração com as Escolas durante os meses de Março e Maio de 2010. As informações recolhidas para a amostra da população geral foram analisadas com a metodologia estatística descritiva usual, após a sua informatização, recorrendo ao programa Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), versão 18.0. Conclusões: Dentre as 240 crianças que participaram no estudo, 47,5% eram do sexo masculino. A média de idades correspondeu a 4,4 anos (dp ±0,882). As mães destas crianças tinham uma idade média de 34,87 anos (dp±5,14) Cerca de 43% das mães eram primíparas, com uma média de 1,8 filhos. A gravidez foi vigiada em 95,7% dos casos. A maioria destas mães teve parto eutócico (55%) com uma taxa de cesarianas de 41%. A percentagem de crianças que receberam aleitamento materno geral foi de 84,4% e destas cerca de 35% receberam-no em exclusivo. As crianças que foram alimentadas exclusivamente com leite materno apresentam uma prevalência de excesso de peso inferior à das crianças que não foram amamentadas exclusivamente (29,5% vs.39%). (OR=1,53). Os resultados deste estudo sugerem que o aleitamento materno tem um efeito protector contra a obesidade em crianças pré-escolares. Contudo, os dados da literatura ainda são controversos em relação a esta hipótese. O aleitamento materno poderá ser mais uma vantagem na prevenção da obesidade infantil, sendo um recurso prático e simples. No entanto a realização de mais estudos parece necessária para se confirmar a associação entre a amamentação e obesidade infantil que se for confirmado será uma mais-valia.FC