Política externa russa para o conflito moldavo-transnístrio

O trabalho desenvolvido no âmbito desta dissertação de mestrado enquadra-se nas actividades do Centro de Excelência Jean Monnet “Peace Relations, Ontologies and Narratives in Europe: EU and its Eastern Neighbours” (PRONE), 611269- EPP-1-2019-1-PT-EPPJMO-CoE, Universidade de Coimbra.A República Moldava da Transnístria é uma região separatista integrada no território da Moldova. O conflito entre as partes permanece por resolver desde 1992, altura em que se envolveram numa curta guerra após a dissolução da União das Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas que culminou com o estabelecimento deste Estado de facto em solo moldavo. A presente dissertação pretende demonstrar que a pedra basilar da sobrevivência da Transnístria é a Federação Russa que actua como protectora da região separatista no domínio militar, económico e político. Na análise do interesse russo na região, é utilizada uma abordagem neo-realista, na qual é ponderado o peso de competição geopolítica com o Ocidente, e uma abordagem construtivista, onde é conferida importância à questão da identidade e das percepções.The Transnistrian Moldovan Republic is a separatist region that is part of the Moldovan territory. The conflict between Moldova and Transnistria remains unsolved since 1992, when the two sides engaged in a brief war after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that ended with the establishment of this de facto State in Moldovan territory. The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the cornerstone of the Transnistria survival is the Russian Federation, which acts as the protector of the region in the military, economic and political field. In order to understand the Russian interest in this region, this research uses the neorealist theory, arguing about the importance of the geopolitical competition with the Western powers, and a social constructivist theory, where the issue of identities and perceptions is highlighted

Análise do impacto da pandemia da COVID-19 no sistema de transporte coletivo por ônibus

This article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transport by bus in two Brazilian metropolia, Belo Horizonte and João Pessoa. Spearman's correlation pointed out a strong relationship between the variation in the number of passengers transported and the restrictive measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic showing that they probably dictated the use of public transport by the population. However, the correlation between the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the variation of transported users was weak in Belo Horizonte and insignificant in João Pessoa. Given the influence of the stringency measures, the significant differences in correlation values with the variation of passengers were identified and proven, being 60% in Belo Horizonte and 76% in João Pessoa. The causality test confirmed that the pandemic intensified the drop in demand for public transport. Therefore, the more severe the policy to combat the transmission of the virus, the greater the relationship with the decrease in demand for buses. Thus, the pandemic was responsible for a significant drop in the number of passengers than the estimated trend for the same period. Finally, results show a crisis in the public transport system by bus in Brazil and the urgent need to rethink strategies to attract users to this service.Neste artigo é analisado o impacto da pandemia de COVID-19 no transporte público por ônibus em duas metrópoles brasileiras, Belo Horizonte e João Pessoa. A correlação de Spearman apontou uma forte relação entre a variação no número de passageiros transportados e as medidas restritivas de combate à pandemia do COVID-19, mostrando que as medidas de enfrentamento ao vírus possivelmente ditaram o uso do transporte público pela população. Em contrapartida, a correlação entre o número de novos casos confirmados de COVID-19 e a variação de usuários transportados foi fraca em Belo Horizonte e insignificante em João Pessoa. Tendo em vista a influência das medidas restritivas, foi identificada e comprovada a existência de diferenças significativas dos valores de correlação com a variação de passageiros a depender do nível de rigidez das medidas em vigor. Para mensurar o efeito causal, o teste de causalidade confirmou que a pandemia intensificou a queda na demanda pelo transporte público, sendo de 60% em Belo Horizonte e 76% em João Pessoa. Portanto, quanto mais severa a política de combate à transmissão do vírus, maior a relação com o decréscimo na demanda por ônibus. Assim, a pandemia foi responsável por uma diminuição de passageiros expressivamente maior do que a tendência estimada para o mesmo período. Os resultados evidenciam uma crise no sistema de transporte público por ônibus no Brasil assim como a necessidade de repensar estratégias para atração de usuários de tal forma que o esse serviço atenda as necessidades de mobilidade da população

A prediction rule to stratify mortality risk of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Tuberculosis imposes high human and economic tolls, including in Europe. This study was conducted to develop a severity assessment tool for stratifying mortality risk in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients. A derivation cohort of 681 PTB cases was retrospectively reviewed to generate a model based on multiple logistic regression analysis of prognostic variables with 6-month mortality as the outcome measure. A clinical scoring system was developed and tested against a validation cohort of 103 patients. Five risk features were selected for the prediction model: hypoxemic respiratory failure (OR 4.7, 95% CI 2.8-7.9), age >= 50 years (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7-4.8), bilateral lung involvement (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.44.4), >= 1 significant comorbidity-HIV infection, diabetes mellitus, liver failure or cirrhosis, congestive heart failure and chronic respiratory disease-(OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3-3.8), and hemoglobin = 6) mortality risk. The mortality associated with each group was 2.9%, 22.9% and 53.9%, respectively. The model performed equally well in the validation cohort. We provide a new, easy-to-use clinical scoring system to identify PTB patients with high-mortality risk in settings with good healthcare access, helping clinicians to decide which patients are in need of closer medical care during treatment.This work was supported by Fundacao Amelia de Mello/Jose de Mello Saude and Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia (SPP). This work was developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). NSO is a FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) investigator. MS is an Associate FCT Investigator. The fundershad no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Relatório de estágio em emergência médica

Mestrado Integrado em MedicinaMaster Degree in Medicin

Chronic Bacterial Infection Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Characteristics: A Bronchiectasis Population-Based Prospective Study

Background: Few data are available on chronic bacterial infections (CBI) in bronchiectasis patients. Given that CBI seems to trigger longer hospital stays, worse outcomes, and morbimortality, this study was undertaken to assess CBI prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors in outpatients with bronchiectasis. Methods: A total of 186 patients followed in a bronchiectasis tertiary referral centre in Portugal were included. Demographic data and information on aetiology, smoking history, mMRC score, Bronchiectasis Severity Index (BSI) score, sputum characteristics, lung function, exacerbations, and radiological involvement degree were collected. Results: Patients included (mean age 54.7 ± 16.2 years; 60.8% females) were followed up for a period of 3.8 ± 1.7 years. The most common cause of bronchiectasis was infection (31.7%) followed by immune deficiencies (11.8%), whereas in 29% of cases, no cause was identified. Haemophilus influenzae (32.3%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (30.1%) were the most common CBI-associated possible pathogenic microorganisms. CBI patients presented a higher follow-up time than no-CBI patients (p = 0.003), worse lung function, BSI (p < 0.001), and radiological (p < 0.001) scores, and more prominent daily sputum production (p = 0.002), estimated mean volume (p < 0.001), and purulent sputum (p < 0.001). The number of exacerbations/year (p = 0.001), including those requiring hospital admission (p = 0.009), were also higher in the CBI group. Independent CBI predictors were BSI score (OR 3.577, 95% CI 1.233–10.378), sputum characteristics (OR 3.306, 95% CI 1.107–9.874), and radiological score (OR 1.052, 95% CI 1.004–1.102). Conclusion: According to the CBI status, two different sub-groups of patients were found on the basis of several clinical outcomes, emphasizing the importance of routine sputum microbiological monitoring. Further studies are needed to better characterize CBI profiles and to define the individual clinical impact of the most prevalent pathogenic microorganisms

Comparing rural multilingualism in Lowland South America and Western Africa

This article explores and compares multilingualism in small-scale societies of Western Africa and Lowland South America. All are characterized by complex and extensive multilingual practices and regional exchange systems established before the onset of globalization and its varying impacts. Through overviews of the general historical and organizational features of regions, vignette case studies, and a discussion of transformative processes affecting them, we show that small-scale multilingual societies present challenges to existing theorization of language as well as approaches to language description and documentation. We aim to bring these societies and issues to the fore, promoting discussion within a broader audience.Peer reviewe

Correction: A Prediction Rule to Stratify Mortality Risk of Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162797.]

Test characteristics with different prediction scores for mortality in the derivation cohort of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

<p>Test characteristics with different prediction scores for mortality in the derivation cohort of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.</p