Stress ocupacional e afrontamento em oficiais da polícia militar portuguesa

This study describes the professional experience of military police officers from the Portuguese Republican National Guard (N = 95). We focused on the main sources and consequences of stress and the coping strategies used to deal with stress. The evaluation protocol included one closed-ended question and four open-ended questions. Data analysis of meaningful text segments was conceptually based and data categorization followed deductive content analysis. Results allowed the identification of 483 meaning units. Factors intrinsic to the job and the relationships at work were the main stressors referred by participants. The consequences of stressors were evident at an individual level, affecting family, psychological, and physical/health domains. The coping strategies used to deal with the main source of stress in the professional career were focused on problem solving (e.g., active confrontation) and emotional regulation (e.g., situation acceptance). Practical implications and future avenues of research with these professionals are discussed.Este estudio analiza la experiencia profesional de agentes de la policía militar de la Guarda Nacional Republicana portuguesa (N = 95). Se centró en las principales fuentes y consecuencias del estrés, así como en las estrategias de afrontamiento. El protocolo de evaluación incluyó una pregunta cerrada y cuatro abiertas. Se realizó una categorización de datos atendiendo a un análisis de contenido deductivo. Las respuestas permitieron establecer 483 unidades de significado, a partir de las cuales se identificaron las principales quejas, relacionadas con factores intrínsecos al trabajo y a las relaciones interpersonales. Las consecuencias de estos problemas fueron evidentes en el plano individual (psicológicas y de salud física) y también afectaban a la familia. Las habilidades utilizadas para hacer frente a las principales fuentes de estrés estaban centradas en la resolución de problemas y el control emocional. Se discuten las implicaciones prácticas y las futuras vías de investigación con estos profesionales.Este estudo analisa a experiência profissional de agentes da polícia militar da Guarda Nacional Republicana Portuguesa (N=95). Centramo-nos nas principais fontes e consequências do stress assim como nas estratégias de afrontamento. O protocolo de avaliação incluiu uma pergunta fechada e quatro abertas. Realizou-se uma categorização de dados atendendo a uma análise de conteúdo dedutivo. As respostas permitiram a identificação de 483 unidades de significado, a partir das quais se identificaram as principais queixas. Estas estavam relacionadas com fatores intrínsecos ao trabalho e relações interpessoais. As consequências destes problemas foram evidentes no nível individual (psicológicas e saúde física) afetando também à família. As habilidades utilizadas para fazer frente às principais fontes de stress estavam centradas na resolução de problemas e o controle emocional. Discutem-se as implicações práticas e as futuras vias de pesquisa com estes profissionais.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and when applicable co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (UID/PSI/01662/2013)

Occupational stress in professionals of public security: a study with military agents of the Republican National Guard

Este trabalho analisa o “stress” ocupacional em 95 militares da Guarda Nacional Republicana Portuguesa. Para tal, utilizámos um protocolo de avaliação com medidas do “stress” global, “burnout”, “coping” proactivo, comprometimento organizacional, satisfação com a vida e satisfação/realização profissional. Os indicadores de fidelidade e validade dos instrumentos foram muito aceitáveis. Os resultados de “burnout” por dimensão apontaram níveis apreciáveis de exaustão emocional (12%), seguidos do cinismo (10%) e da baixa eficácia profissional (8%) (mas nenhum participante registou valores de “burnout” nas três dimensões, em simultâneo), observando-se também variáveis distintas na predição destas três áreas. A análise discriminante entre subgrupos da amostra permitiu verificar dois aspectos principais: i) menores níveis de comprometimento organizacional e maior utilização de “coping” proactivo nos militares mais novos e/ou inexperientes e ii) maior desejo de abandonar o emprego/trabalho bem como maior cinismo parecem identificar os profissionais mais velhos e/ou mais experientes. No final, os autores discutem a importância de a investigação futura analisar os efeitos da maior tendência para o cinismo com o aumento da idade dos participantes e os efeitos do menor comprometimento organizacional por parte dos mais novos em termos da sua eficácia profissional.This work analyzes occupational stress in 95 Portuguese military agents of the Republican National Guard. We applied an evaluation protocol with measures of global stress, burnout, proactive coping, organizational commitment, satisfaction with life, and professional satisfaction/accomplishment. The fidelity and validity results of the instruments were very acceptable. The results of burnout pointed out a remarkable level of emotional exhaustion (12%) followed by cynicism (10%) and low professional effectiveness (8%) (but we have not found any participant with burnout values in the three dimensions simultaneously), and different variables were observed in the prediction of those three areas. The discriminant analysis among subgroups allowed us to verify two main aspects: (a) lower levels of organizational commitment and more use of proactive coping in younger and/or inexperienced military agents and (b) higher desire to leave the job/profession and cynicism in older and/or more experienced professionals. At the end, the authors discuss the importance of future research to analyze the effects of a higher tendency to use cynicism as their age increase and the consequences of a lower organizational commitment in terms of professional efficacy of the younger agents

Probable Person-to-Person Transmission of Legionnaires’ Disease

Correspondence to the Editor.Legionnaires’ disease is an often severe form of pneumonia that is typically acquired by susceptible persons (e.g., elderly persons and smokers) through inhalation of aerosols that contain legionella species.1-4 A cluster of cases of this disease occurred in Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal, in 2014

Modification of polyamide 6.6 dyeing properties by grafting with poly(acrylic acid)

978-972-8063-67-2The wet chemical surface modification continues to be a growing area of research interest. This study describes preparation and characterization of poly (acrylic acid)-grafted polyamide 6.6 fabric. Poly(acrylic acid) has been grafted onto polyamide backbone using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as catalyst in aqueous medium. The benzoyl peroxide initiator optimum concentration was 0.03 M. The best conditions for optimum grafting reaction were reaction time 120 min, grafting temperature 85°C, monomer concentration 0.5 M and BPO concentration 0.03 M. The grafting rate was evaluated gravimetrically. The maximum grafting percentage obtained was 13.3%. All samples were characterized by Fourier–transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR). The influence of acrylic acid grafting onto polyamide 6.6 was studied in terms of dye uptake using a basic dye, Rouge Maxilon GRL. Mechanical properties were also analysed

Classifying heart sounds using multiresolution time series motifs : an exploratory study

The aim of this work is to describe an exploratory study on the use of a SAX-based Multiresolution Motif Discovery method for Heart Sound Classification. The idea of our work is to discover relevant frequent motifs in the audio signals and use the discovered motifs and their frequency as characterizing attributes. We also describe different configurations of motif discovery for defining attributes and compare the use of a decision tree based algorithm with random forests on this kind of data. Experiments were performed with a dataset obtained from a clinic trial in hospitals using the digital stethoscope DigiScope. This exploratory study suggests that motifs contain valuable information that can be further exploited for Heart Sound Classification

Classifying heart sounds using SAX motifs, random forests and text mining techniques

In this paper we describe an approach to classifying heart sounds (classes Normal, Murmur and Extra-systole) that is based on the discretization of sound signals using the SAX (Symbolic Aggregate Approximation) representation. The ability of automatically classifying heart sounds or at least support human decision in this task is socially relevant to spread the reach of medical care using simple mobile devices or digital stethoscopes. In our approach, sounds are firrst pre-processed using signal processing techniques (decimate, low-pass filter, normalize, Shannon envelope). Then the pre-processed symbols are transformed into sequences of discrete SAX symbols. These sequences are subject to a process of motif discovery. Frequent sequences of symbols (motifs) are adopted as features. Each sound is then characterized by the frequent motifs that occur in it and their respective frequency. This is similar to the term frequency (TF) model used in text mining. In this paper we compare the TF model with the application of the TFIDF (Term frequency - Inverse Document Frequency) and the use of bi-grams (frequent size two sequences of motifs). Results show the ability of the motifs based TF approach to separate classes and the relative value of the TFIDF and the bi-grams variants. The separation of the Extra-systole class is overly dificult and much better results are obtained for separating the Murmur class. Empirical validation is conducted using real data collected in noisy environments. We have also assessed the cost-reduction potential of the proposed methods by considering a fixed cost model and using a cost sensitive meta algorithm.Portuguese Funds through the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (proj. FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037281 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-PEst-OE/EEI/UI0760/2014)

Green dyeing of polyamide with increased anti-UV properties

[Excerpt] Introduction: During the last few decades, ecological concerns related to the use of the synthetic dyes, have led to a greater motivation for the development of processes that use natural products. This strategy has been applied to improve theincreasingly necessary sustainability of wet textile processes.Natural dyes are available in nature in different shadesandthey can be exploited for coloring textilesandto improveother properties such as UV protection and antimicrobial activity. Among them, those obtained from eucalyptus leaves, mainly composed by tannins (gallic acid and ellagic acid) and flavonoids (quercetin and rutin), appear to be interesting for textile finishing applications. The eucalyptus leaves, arean abundant, inexpensiveand readily available forestresidue.However, despite the recognized properties of this type of compound, its use in polyamide dyeing was not reported in our literature review.The present study aimed to develop dyed polyamide 6 knittedfabrics with increased UV protection using a naturaleucalyptus leavesextract. [...]Authorswishing to acknowledge the Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T –Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia Têxtil, funded by National Founds through FCT/MCTES

Verbesserungsmöglichkelten von färberischen-und antimikrobiellen eigenschaften auf baumwolle

Comunicação apresentada no 20th IFATCC Congress, Weimer, Germany, 5 - 6 Maio 2005.In the present work, some specific amino compounds were linked to the cotton fabrics on a process that can impart at the same time dyeability and durable antimicrobial properties. The process was monitored on-line in a prototype dyeing system since the addition of cationic agents will influence dye uptake. Different dyeing conditions were tested with direct dyes, with and without salt, until the exhaustion curve was at least equivalent to the standard dyeing curve in the presence of salt