Acceptance criteria in a promotional tourism demarketing plan

In a nature-based demarketing tourism plan the elaboration of promotional products are very important to reach the goals of encourage and awareness tourists to the demarketing measures used. The elaboration of a promotional product involves, in part, a creative process, making the evaluation of the final product subjective and, therefore, compromising the acceptance criteria and the finalization of the project. This work presents a tool for a common issue addressed in promotional tourism demarketing plans: raising environmental awareness. This tool can help to objectivate its acceptance criteria, making the process of acceptance of the final product (the promotional tourism demarketing plan) more objective, predictable and simpler.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bioethics education on deliberation - a view of a novel: Blue Gold, by Clive Cussler

Bioethics education on deliberation - a view of a novel: Blue Gold, by Clive Cussler (Article presented at the conference Bioethics Education: Contents, Methods, Trends, Zefat, Israel, May 2-5, 2010) Authors: Susana Magalhães* (researcher), Joana Araújo (researcher), Ana Sofia Carvalho (Head of the Institute of Bioethics) Research Centre of Bioethics, Institute of Bioethics, Portuguese Catholic University Bioethics education on deliberation - a view of a novel: Blue Gold, by Clive Cussler Since the focus of Bioethics is the bridge between Humanities and the Life Sciences and bearing in mind that this bridge is often difficult to build, those who believe that this dialogue is important in our days should promote it through Education. By educating in Bioethics it is possible to improve the participation of the citizens in debates on the ethical issues raised by new technologies and scientific research. It is our conviction that literary texts are laboratories of ethical judgment, where the ethical questions concerning specific scientific/technological issues are addressed in an imaginary world. Therefore our purpose is to present a framework for ethical deliberation through the use of literature. Fiction allows us to “practise” ethical decision making, by focusing on the particular cases of the characters of the story and by checking how the principles / theories working at the background apply to the narrated cases

Bioethical education on deliberation: the views of a novel

Ethics is the study of the moral basis of human behavior that aims to determine the best course of action. Bioethics, as a transdisciplinary area, based both on ethics and on life sciences, reflects upon the ethical problems raised by new technologies and scientific research. One of the main tools to tackle bioethical problems is deliberation, a procedure that attempts to analyse problems, weighing up the principles and values involved as well as the context of each case. Due to the complexity of deliberation, educational projects should be promoted, providing the practice necessary for correct deliberation and raising awareness of the current ethical issues. It is our purpose to present a framework for ethical deliberation throughout the use of literature. Literary texts are essential, since they show human beings acting in space and time and they give the readers an opportunity to deliberate on ethical issues. Based on a literary text, we will reflect upon a controversial ethical issue - Preimplantion Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)

Impact of variable oxygen environments on resistance to acute antibiotherapy by cystic fibrosis related bacteria

The existence of steep oxygen gradients within the cystic fibrosis (CF) airways mucus is well known, with zones ranging from aerobic to completely anaerobic. Those environments, of heterogeneous availabilities of oxygen, contribute for the proliferation of a phylogenetically diverse ecosystem. This study aimed to inspect whether CF-related bacteria - Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other emerging species Acinetobacter baumannii, Dolosigranulum pigrum, Inquilinus limosus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia are able to develop in vitro biofilms and be tolerant towards ciprofloxacin, an in-use antibiotic in acute CF infections. Single biofilms were formed in vitro, under aerobic and anaerobic environments, and further evaluated in terms of biomass and CFU counting. The antibiotic resistance profiles were analysed by constructing time-kill-curves.All species were able to growth under environments with distinct oxygen availability, demonstrating a great biofilm-forming ability highlighted by higher amount of biofilm mass, particularly under aerobic atmospheres.Biofilm time-kill curves showed augmented antibiotic tolerance of the bacteria, which was independent of the oxygen availability, except for D. pigrum where total eradication of biofilm-cells was noticed. Data highlighted that CF-related bacteria could persist under atmospheres with restricted oxygen availability, and form biofilms resilient to ciprofloxacin. Therefore, a more detailed knowledge about the effect of CF environments on the ability of the bacteria to proliferate and resist to antibiotics might be crucial for the success of CF infection treatment

Pseudomonas aeruginosa modulates Inquilinus limosus tolerance to acute antibiotherapy under cystic fibrosis variable oxygen conditions

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) airways disease involves a complex polymicrobial infection whereby different bacterial species can interact and influence each other. To gain insights into the role that Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Inquilinus limosus interactionsmay play during CF infection, the reciprocal effect during biofilm formation, as well as ciprofloxacin activity against mixed biofilms under in vitro atmospheres with different oxygen availabilities were evaluated. The kinetics of biofilm formation showed that P. aeruginosa negatively affected I. limosus growth, under both aerobic and anaerobic environments. On the other hand, under aerobic conditions, I. limosus led to a decrease in biofilm production by P. aeruginosa, although biofilm-cells viability of remains unaltered.Given the differences measured by the crystal violet [biofilm biomass, consisting of both extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and cells] and the viable count (biofilm viability) assays, these results may indicate that in mixed biofilms the presence of I. limosus, under aerobic conditions, leads to a reduction in P. aeruginosa EPS.Interestingly, P. aeruginosa might be responsible for the protection of I. limosus against ciprofloxacin activity. The analysis of the viable count dynamics revealed that I. limosus is less susceptible to ciprofloxacin when co-cultured in mixed biofilms with P. aeruginosa. Taken together, the results suggest a reciprocal interference between different bacterial species in CF lung. Alterations of bacterial behaviour due to interspecies interactions may be important for disease progression in CF infection

Cystic fibrosis bacteria under variable oxygen tensions: biofilm formation ability and resilience to acute antibiotherapy

Distinct availabilities of oxygen, nutrients and antibiotics in the cystic fibrosis (CF) airways have contributed to the colonization of a large polymicrobial community, which may have further repercussion in the development of chronic biofilms and in antibiotherapy. This study aimed to inspect whether CF-related bacteria - Staphylococcus aureus (Sa) and two less common species Acinetobacter baumanni (Ab) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp), are able to develop in vitro biofilms and resist to ciprofloxacin under aerobic/hypoxic conditions. Thus, biofilm-cells were estimated by CFU counting and time-kill-curves determined by absorbance (planktonic) and CFU (biofilm). All species showed alike results for biofilm growth, with higher bacteria (~109 CFU/cm2) adhering under aerobiosis than for hypoxic atmospheres (~108 CFU/cm2) in 24 h. Regarding the susceptibility profiles, Sa was the most sensitive species (MIC/MBC: 0.5 mg/L), with Kp keeping the most resistant profile against ciprofloxacin (MIC: 16 mg/L; MBC: >512 mg/L). Planktonic and biofilm time-kill curves were equivalent for both atmospheres. Interestingly, ciprofloxacin affected notably Sa biofilms under both conditions (adhesion rates declining 4log from 1/4MIC to 4MIC), but Ab and Kp biofilms were not disturbed even by the presence of abnormal ciprofloxacin concentrations, preserving initial adhesion rates from 106 - 107 cells/cm2/h, respectively. Data highlighted that CF unusual species could persist under hypoxia and form biofilms resilient to ciprofloxacin currently applied in acute infections, eventually progressing for severe biofilms hard to eradicate with powerful antibiotherapy

Auto-conceito de competência: diferenças entre cursos de carácter geral e profissional no ensino secundário português

[Resumo] o Ensino Secundário Portugues oferece um vasto leque de modalidades de formação com objectivos distintos, estando a escolha por uma delas relacionada com as oportunidades sócio-económicas, interesses, projectos, aspirações/expectativas pessoais, escolares e/ou profissionais dos alunos, bem como com as percepções que estes formam acerca das suas próprias capacidades e competencias. Neste quadro, considerando o auto-conceito de competencia como a percepção acerca das capacidades para lidar de forma eficaz com o ambiente, nomeadamente do ponto de vista cognitivo, social e de criatividade, desenvolvemos um estudo diferencial com 403 alunos que frequentam duas vias/modalidades distintas do Ensino Secundário - Cursos de Carácter Geral e Cursos Profissionais -, utilizando a Escala de Auto-Conceito de Competencia de Raty e Snellman (1992), adaptada ao contexto portugues por Faria, Lima Santos e Bessa (1996). Os resultados mostram que o auto-conceito de competencia se diferencia em função do género, do nível de escolaridade e do nível sócio-económico, corroborando outros estudos portugueses. As diferenças em função da via/modalidade de ensino favorecem os alunos que frequentam Cursos de Carácter Geral, facto este que pode estar relacionado com os diferentes objectivos e actividades valorizados por cada via/modalidade, o que sugere a promoção de um desenvolvimento diferenciado da percepção de competencia pessoa

Influência das varáveis familiares nos auto-cuidados em diabéticos tipo 2

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT