Beyond All Frontiers: Psychopathic Violence in Selected Works by Cormac McCarthy

Esta dissertação pretende analisar de que forma obras selecionadas de Cormac McCarthy fazem a desconstrução do mito do Oeste, através da sua representação da violência humana como transversal, inevitável, e intemporal, desafiando, assim, a figura arquetípica do cowboy enquanto herói e introduzindo o psicopata como personagem central. Defende que, através da desconstrução de estereótipos, estas obras confrontam a internalização de uma fórmula mais convencional do mito do Oeste, questionando o paradoxo do herói e promovendo reflexões sobre a natureza humana. Para além disso, tenta mostrar que personagens que, devido ao seu comportamento atroz, são frequentemente vistas por críticos, leitores, e outras personagens, como sendo deuses, fantasmas, ou monstros, de facto representam seres humanos. Assim, o Capítulo I, explora o mito do Oeste e o seu herói e analisa Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West (1985) e No Country for Old Men (2005), ambos Westerns, e Child of God (1973), que não pertence a esta categoria. O Capítulo II explora o conceito de psicopatia, caracteriza o perfil de psicopatia, e define “violência psicopática”, segundo Robert D. Hare, o autor do instrumento de avaliação mais proeminente nesta área, a Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Finalmente, o Capítulo III analisa as personagens centrais de Judge Holden, Anton Chigurh, e Lester Ballard, três assassinos em série, dois dos quais são considerados psicopatas, e um dos quais não o é, i.e., dois dos quais semeiam “violência psicopática”, e um dos quais não o faz.This dissertation aims to examine some of the ways in which selected works by Cormac McCarthy allow for the deconstruction of the myth of the West, through their portrayal of human violence as transversal, unavoidable, and timeless, thus challenging the archetypal figure of the cowboy as hero and introducing the psychopath as a central character. It claims that, by challenging archetypes, these works confront the internalization of a more conventional formula of the myth of the West, pushing the existing paradox of the hero beyond all the frontiers and promoting reflections about human nature. Furthermore, it attempts to show that characters who, because of their horrific behavior, are frequently viewed by critics, readers, and other characters as gods, phantoms, or monsters, in fact represent human beings. Thus, Chapter I explores the myth of the West and its hero and analyzes Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West (1985) and No Country for Old Men (2005), both Westerns, and Child of God (1973), which eludes this category. Chapter II explores the concept of psychopathy, characterizes the psychopathy profile, and defines psychopathic violence, according to Robert D. Hare, the author of the most prominent assessment instrument in the field, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Finally, Chapter III analyses the central characters of Judge Holden, Anton Chigurh, and Lester Ballard, three serial killers, two of which are psychopaths, and one who is not, i.e., two of which sow psychopathic violence, and one who does not

COVID-19 collaborative screening: an action-research project for large scale contact tracing in Northern Portugal

In late November 2020, when Europe reached the highest 14-day incidence of COVID-19 cases, the resource-intensive and time-consuming traditional contact tracing performed by Public Health was challenged. In this context, innovative approaches were necessary to guarantee a timely interruption of disease transmission. “COVID-19 Collaborative Screening” Project was developed as a faster solution, not only because the contact tracing process is simpler for the operator, but mainly because it is possible to quickly scale up the number of operators involved. It was designed to interrupt family and social transmission chains, in a partnership with the Local Public Health Services – allowing these services to dedicate to scenarios of more complex risk assessment, using the traditional contact tracing. To perform contact tracing, this method involves Public Servants, Armed Forces and Medical Dentists. The Project also promotes participatory citizenship, by delegating to the citizen the responsibility of registering his/hers contacts with high-risk exposure in an online form, in contrast to the traditional contact tracing method which is more health professional-dependent. Until the end of January 2021, the Project has trained eight teams, enrolling a total of 213 professionals, and was implemented in eight Health Regions (with an estimated population of 1,346,150 inhabitants). The Project was successful at facing the delays in case interview and contact tracing. The strategy implemented by ColabCOVID is assembled as a sustainable, reproducible and scalable platform and is ready to be re-implemented to face the emergence of more contagious variants, as well as an eventual forthcoming health threat

Work placements in doctoral research training in the humanities:eight cases from translation studies

Research cooperation between academic and nonacademic institutions tends not to concern the humanities, where mutual financial rewards are mostly not in evidence. The study of eight nonacademic placements of doctoral researchers working on interlingual translation nevertheless indicates some degree of success. It is found that the placements lead to ongoing cooperation when the following conditions are met: 1) the nature of the placement is understood and relations of trust are established; 2) mutual benefits are envisaged; and 3) there are prior arrangements for receiving visiting researchers. A placement can be successful even when one of the last two factors is missing. Further, the measure of success for placements in the humanities should concern social and symbolic benefits, in addition to financial profits

a qualitative study in Portugal

H4A Primary Healthcare Research Network scholars programme for support of research. This article was supported by National Funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia,I.P., within CINTESIS, R&D Unit (reference UIDB/4255/2020)OBJECTIVES: To translate and culturally adapt an English language patient decision aid addressing prostate cancer screening, so it can be used by Portuguese men. DESIGN: Qualitative study. We followed the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) five-step, stakeholder-based approach to adapting health communication materials: (1) selection of materials and process coordinators, (2) early review, (3) translation and back translation, (4) comprehension testing with cognitive semi-structured interviews and (5) proofreading. Content analysis was performed using Ligre software. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Cognitive interviews with 15 men to refine a decision aid after its translation. Eligible participants were Portuguese native-speaking men aged 55-69 years old recruited from the local community (urban and suburban) of Oporto district through advertisements in social media and senior universities between January and March 2019. A previous diagnosis of prostate cancer was the single exclusion criterion. RESULTS: Five main themes are presented: informational content, information comprehension, sociocultural appropriateness, feelings and main message and personal perspective concerning prostate cancer screening. Most men found the translated version of the decision aid to be clear, comprehensive and appropriate for its target population, although some suggested that medical terms could be a barrier. The data collected from men's interviews afforded the researchers the opportunity to clarify concepts and expand existing content. CONCLUSIONS: A decision aid was successfully translated and adapted to the Portuguese cultural setting. Our ECDC based approach can be replicated by other workgroups to translate and culturally adapt decision aids.publishersversionpublishe

Emergent technologies for the extraction of antioxidants from prickly pear peel and their antimicrobial activity

Phenolic compounds are important bioactive compounds identified in prickly pear peel that have important antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. However, conventional thermal extraction methods may reduce their bioactivity, and technologies such as high pressure (HP) and ohmic heating (OH) may help preserve them. In this study, both technologies were analyzed, individually and combined (250/500 MPa; 40/70 °C; ethanol concentration 30/70%), and compared with Soxhlet with regard to total phenolics, flavonoids, and carotenoids as well as antioxidant (ABTS, DPPH, ORAC), DNA pro-oxidant, and antimicrobial (inhibition halos, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), growth curves, and viable cells) activities of prickly pear peel extracts. Total phenolics extracted by each technology increased 103% (OH) and 98% (HP) with regard to Soxhlet, but the contents of total flavonoids and carotenoids were similar. Antioxidant activity increased with HP and OH (between 35% and 63%), and OH (70 °C) did not induce DNA degradation. The phenolic compound present in higher amounts was piscidic acid, followed by eucomic acid and citrate. In general, their extraction was significantly favored by HP and OH. Antimicrobial activity against 7 types of bacteria showed effective results only against S. aureus, S. enteritidis, and B. cereus. No synergetic or additive effect was observed for HP/OH.Thanks is due to the Universidade Católica Portuguesa for the financial support of the CBQF Associate Laboratory under FCT project UID/Multi/50016/2019, the University of Aveiro and FCT/MCT for the financial support of the LAQV-REQUIMTE Research Unit (FCT UIDB/50006/2020) through national funds and, where applicable, cofinanced by FEDER within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, and the University of Minho under the scope of strategic funding of the UIDB/04469/2020 unit and the BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020–Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Marta Coelho is also grateful for the financial support of this work from FCT through Doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/111884/2015.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dez Anos de Aperto: Um Diagnóstico Tardio de Esofagite Eosinofílica

Eosinophilic esophagitis is now one of the most common conditions diagnosed during the assessment of feeding problems in children and during the evaluation of dysphagia and food impaction in adults. We report a case of a 20-year-old male, with a history of asthma, who developed solid dysphagia and food impaction symptoms over a 10-year course. A late diagnosis led to incapacitating symptoms, advanced endoscopic findings, and riskier therapeutic options. Primary care providers are pivotal for timely and accurate detection of symptoms and proper referral to specialists