Oportunidades e desafios da avaliação de desempenho para o desenvolvimento profissional dos docentes: um estudo a partir das perceções de professores de uma escola básica do distrito de Évora

O propósito desta investigação foi analisar a cultura avaliativa de uma escola, considerando o desempenho docente. Conceptualmente, foram aprofundados os temas da profissionalidade docente (identidade, conhecimento, desenvolvimento profissional e organizacional) e os eixos estruturantes da avaliação no contexto atual. Salientou-se o papel da reflexão, da supervisão e do feedback construtivo, advogando-se a avaliação enquanto projeto, inserida numa cultura singular. Daí decorreu o desenho metodológico, configurando um estudo exploratório, descritivo da cultura escolar, no que diz respeito às perceções dos professores efetivos sobre o desempenho do trabalho docente. Optou-se pela leitura dos documentos de gestão pedagógica e pelo ques-tionário, enquanto instrumentos de recolha de dados. Os resultados do estudo empírico tenderam a revelar uma propensão favorável aos assuntos abordados. A avaliação do desempenho docente, encarada numa perspetiva formativa, pareceu surgir, naquela escola, como uma oportunidade de aprendizagem que enforma toda a complexidade do ato de ensinar

Selective Attention and Sensory Modality in Aging: Curses and Blessings

The notion that selective attention is compromised in older adults as a result of impaired inhibitory control is well established. Yet it is primarily based on empirical findings covering the visual modality. Auditory and, especially, cross-modal selective attention are remarkably underexposed in the literature on aging. In the past five years, we have attempted to fill these voids by investigating performance of younger and older adults on equivalent tasks covering all four combinations of visual or auditory target, and visual or auditory distractor information. In doing so, we have demonstrated that older adults are especially impaired in auditory selective attention with visual distraction. This pattern of results was not mirrored by the results from our psychophysiological studies, however, in which both enhancement of target processing and suppression of distractor processing appeared to be age equivalent. We currently conclude that (1) age-related differences of selective attention are modality dependent, (2) age-related differences of selective attention are limited, and (3) it remains an open question whether modality-specific age differences in selective attention are due to impaired distractor inhibition, impaired target enhancement, or both. These conclusions put the longstanding inhibitory deficit hypothesis of aging in a new perspective

Chemical profiling of infusions and decoctions of Helichrysum italicum subsp picardii by UHPLC-PDA-MS and in vitro biological activities comparatively with green tea (Camellia sinensis) and rooibos tisane (Aspalathus linearis)

Several medicinal plants are currently used by the food industry as functional additives, for example botanical extracts in herbal drinks. Moreover, the scientific community has recently begun focusing on halophytes as sources of functional beverages. Helichrysum italicum subsp. picardii (everlasting) is an aromatic halophyte common in southern Europe frequently used as spice and in traditional medicine. In this context, this work explored for the first time H. italicum subsp. picardii as a potential source of innovative herbal beverages with potential health promoting properties. For that purpose, infusions and decoctions were prepared from roots, vegetative aerial-organs (stems and leaves) and flowers and evaluated for in vitro antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities. Samples were also assessed for toxicity in different mammalian cell lines and chemically characterized by spectrophotometric methods and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography photo diode array mass-spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-MS). Results were expressed relating to 'a cup-of-tea' and compared with those obtained with green tea (Camellia sinensis) and rooibos tisane (Aspalathus linearis). Tisanes from the everlasting's above-ground organs, particularly flowers, have high polyphenolic content and several phenolics were identified; the main compounds were chlorogenic and quinic acids, dicaffeoylquinic-acid isomers and gnaphaliin-A. The antioxidant activity of beverages from the everlasting's above-ground organs matched or surpassed that of green tea and rooibos. Its anti-diabetic activity was moderate and toxicity low. Overall, our results suggest that the everlasting is a potential source of innovative and functional herbal beverages. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.national funds through Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) [CCMAR/Multi/04326/2013]FCT [SFRH/BD/94407/2013, SFRH/BD/116604/2016]Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) [12M8315N]FCT Investigator Programme [IF/00049/2012]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risk of drowning in people with Parkinson's disease

© 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder SocietySwimming is a common activity, practiced by both healthy and nonhealthy people of all ages. It is a complex activity that requires coordination of breathing with continued and harmonic upper and lower limb movements. Because of the unique properties of water, aquatic activities are usually associated with facilitated movements and therapeutic properties.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sequential dual site-selective protein labelling enabled by lysine modification.

Methods that allow for chemical site-selective dual protein modification are scarce. Here, we provide proof-of-concept for the orthogonality and compatibility of a method for regioselective lysine modification with strategies for protein modification at cysteine and genetically encoded ketone-tagged amino acids. This sequential, orthogonal approach was applied to albumin and a therapeutic antibody to create functional dual site-selectively labelled proteins

Remedial Effects of Motivational Incentive on Declining Cognitive Control In Healthy Aging and Parkinson's Disease

The prospect of reward may provide a motivational incentive for optimizing goal-directed behavior. Animal work demonstrates that reward-processing networks and oculomotor-control networks in the brain are connected through the dorsal striatum, and that reward anticipation can improve oculomotor control via this nexus. Due perhaps to deterioration in dopaminergic striatal circuitry, goal-directed oculomotor control is subject to decline in healthy seniors, and even more in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we examine whether healthy seniors and PD patients are able to utilize reward prospects to improve their impaired antisaccade performance. Results confirmed that oculomotor control declined in PD patients compared to healthy seniors, and in healthy seniors compared to young adults. However, the motivational incentive of reward expectation resulted in benefits in antisaccade performance in all groups alike. These findings speak against structural and non-modifiable decline in cognitive control functions, and emphasize the remedial potential of motivational incentive mechanisms in healthy as well as pathological aging

Discriminative capacity and construct validity of the Clock Drawing Test in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric and diagnostic properties of the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), scored according to the Babins, Rouleau, and Cahn scoring systems, for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) screening, and develop corresponding cutoff scores. Additionally, we assessed the construct validity of the CDT through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. METHODS: We developed a cross-sectional study of ambulatory MCI and AD patients, divided in two clinical groups (450 MCI and 250 mild AD patients) and a normal control group (N = 400). All participants were assessed with the CDT, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for convergent validity. RESULTS: The selected scoring systems presented adequate validity and reliability values. The proposed cutoff scores showed 60 to 65% sensitivity and 58 to 62% specificity to identify MCI patients. The corresponding values for AD were 84 to 90% sensitivity and 76 to 78% specificity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the Babins scoring system had good construct validity and allowed us to propose a three-factor model for this system. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirmed the complexity of the CDT and support it as a cognitive screening instrument particularly sensitive to AD. The use of the CDT with MCI patients should be interpreted with more caution due to the lower sensitivity and specificity for milder forms of cognitive impairment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quaternization of Vinyl/Alkynyl Pyridine enables ultrafast cysteine‐selective protein modification and charge modulation

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Quaternized vinyl- and alkynyl-pyridine reagents were shown to react in an ultrafast and selective manner with several cysteine-tagged proteins at near-stoichiometric quantities. We have demonstrated that this method can effectively create a homogenous antibody-drug conjugate that features a precise drug-to-antibody ratio of 2, which was stable in human plasma and retained its specificity towards Her2+ cells. Finally, the developed warhead introduces a +1 charge to the overall net charge of the protein, which enabled us to show that the electrophoretic mobility of the protein may be tuned through the simple attachment of a quaternized vinyl pyridinium reagent at the cysteine residues. We anticipate the generalized use of quaternized vinyl- and alkynyl-pyridine reagents not only for bioconjugation, but also as warheads for covalent inhibition and as tools to profile cysteine reactivity.Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN GA No. 675007, the Royal Society (UF110046 and URF\R\180019 to G.J.L.B.), FCT Portugal (iFCT IF/00624/2015 to G.J.L.B. and PhD studentship SFRH/BD/115932/2016 to A.G.), Xunta de Galicia (Galician Plan of research, innovation and growth 2011–2015, ED481B 2014/086-0 and ED481B 2018/007 to M.J.M.), D.G.I. MINECO/FEDER (grants CTQ2015-70524-R and RYC-2013–14706 to G.J.-O. and C.D.N and CTQ2015-67727-R to F.C.), Universidad de la Rioja (FPI PhD studentship to I.C.), FAPESP (BEPE 2015/07509-1 and 2017/13168-8 to B.B.), and by an ERC StG (GA No. 676832).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio