Second Language Teaching in Portuguese Primary School - Some Legal Notes

Recent years have shown that immigration policies, on one hand, and globalisation, on the other hand, have changed the way we interact with people from other cultures. Portuguese schools have been one of the first places to integrate newcomers and to find new ways of dealing with different cultures and foreign languages. Teachers, non-teaching staff and pupils were, at one time, the pioneers in finding new educational, social competences to integrate children that talked different languages. Besides, schools were also the first institutions to feel the needs for new communicational and linguistic tools in children. This is to say, schools were the first formal contexts where the need for new linguistic competences was indeed embraced. Later, legislation was produced in order to organise the different practices that were already spread through the country schools. Particularly, laws were made to legislate the integration of children who were attending Portuguese schools although they were not Portuguese native speakers. At the time, there were immigrants coming from Portuguese speaking countries but also from China or from the East of Europe and language was really an issue. Simultaneously, English emerged as the language spoken in Europe, as a cultural language, as the language for business. Older Portuguese students had weak fluency in English. Something had to be done at an earlier age. Some projects had already been implemented successfully but they were “unofficial”. English teaching became legally suitable in primary schools. The legislation produced translated the philosophy and the conception of multiculturalism and multilingualism as important tools to live peacefully in a global society. In this paper, I want to contextualise the laws that have been produced and explain what is being done in primary schools in English language teaching and in Portuguese Language as a foreign language teaching

Differing trends in the association between obesity and self-reported health in Portugal and Switzerland. Data from national health surveys 1992-2007.

The escalating prevalence of obesity might prompt obese subjects to consider themselves as normal, as this condition is gradually becoming as frequent as normal weight. In this study, we aimed to assess the trends in the associations between obesity and self-rated health in two countries. Data from the Portuguese (years 1995-6, 1998-6 and 2005-6) and Swiss (1992-3, 1997, 2002 and 2007) National Health Surveys were used, corresponding to more than 130,000 adults (64,793 for Portugal and 65,829 for Switzerland). Body mass index and self-rated health were derived from self-reported data. Obesity levels were higher in Portugal (17.5% in 2005-6 vs. 8.9% in 2007 in Switzerland, p < 0.001) and increased in both countries. The prevalence of participants rating their health as "bad" or "very bad" was higher in Portugal than in Switzerland (21.8% in 2005-6 vs 3.9% in 2007, p < 0.001). In both countries, obese participants rated more frequently their health as "bad" or "very bad" than participants with regular weight. In Switzerland, the prevalence of "bad" or "very bad" rates among obese participants, increased from 6.5% in 1992-3 to 9.8% in 2007, while in Portugal it decreased from 41.3% to 32.3%. After multivariate adjustment, the odds ratio (OR) of stating one self's health as "bad" or "very bad" among obese relative to normal weight participants, almost doubled in Switzerland: from 1.38 (95% confidence interval, CI: 1.01-1.87) in 1992-3 to 2.64 (95% CI: 2.14-3.26) in 2007, and similar findings were obtained after sample weighting. Conversely, no such trend was found in Portugal: 1.35 (95% CI: 1.23-1.48) in 1995-6 and 1.52 (95% CI: 1.37-1.70) in 2005-6. Obesity is increasing in Switzerland and Portugal. Obesity is increasingly associated with poorer self-health ratings in Switzerland but not in Portugal

Pilot project on the implementation of SSD2 in the frame of the electronic transmission of harmonised data collection of analytical results to EFSA: Portugal

The present report describes the work done in Portugal under the “Pilot project on the implementation of SSD2 in the frame of the electronic transmission of harmonised datacollection of analytical results to EFSA”and corresponds to deliverable D6“Report on SSD2 pilot results”. This document describes all the procedure to the encoding and mapping for the residues of veterinarymedicinal products(VMPR) data from the Portuguese official control plans, how that correspondence is made for the Standard Sample Description ver.2 (SSD2), the transformations required to support the controlled terminology supplied by EFSA, the transformation made on the national database PT.ON.DATA to support thisnew domain,the SSD2 languagesand the implementation of the Web Services regarding the data transmission and Catalogues Retrieval. This document describes also the challenges encountered during the implementation of the standard model, and makes a general analysis on its limitations and potential developments.OC/EFSA/DATA/2015/02.EFSA (OC/EFSA/DCM/2013/05)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sistema nacional de gestão de dados "Alimentos - PT.ON.DATA": contaminantes químicos na cadeia alimentar em Portugal em amostras do controlo oficial

Objetivos: Capacitar o país para a transmissão eletrónica de dados analíticos de ocorrência de contaminantes químicos nos géneros alimentícios e alimentos para animais, através da criação de um sistema nacional de gestão de dados do controlo oficial dos alimentos, harmonização de formulários de colheita e definição de procedimentos de recolha, transformação, validação e transmissão de dados

Pilot project on the implementation of SSD2 in the frame of the electronic transmission of harmonised data collection of analytical results to EFSA

The present report describes the work done in Portugal under the Pilot project on the implementation of SSD2 in the frame of the electronic transmission of harmonised data collection of analytical results to EFSA and corresponds to deliverable D6 “Report on SSD2 pilot results”. This document describes all the procedure to the encoding and mapping for the chemical contaminants, pesticide residues, biological monitoring and food additives data from the Portuguese authorities, how that correspondence is made for the Standard Sample Description ver.2 (SSD2), the transformations required to support the controlled terminology supplied by EFSA, the transformation made on the national database PT.ON.DATA to support the new domains and the SSD2 languages. This document describes also the challenges encountered during the implementation of the standard model and makes a general analysis on its limitations and potential developments. OC/EFSA/DCM/2013/05.EFSA (OC/EFSA/DCM/2013/05)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

National data management system "Alimentos - PT•ON•DATA": contaminants in the Portuguese food chain on official control samples, 2009-2015

Portugal, à semelhança dos outros Estados-membros da União Europeia, planifica e executa planos de controlo anuais que visam garantir a qualidade e segurança dos géneros alimentícios e dos alimentos para animais, envolvendo a recolha de vários dados analíticos, em diferentes domínios. Os dados obtidos neste âmbito são reportados para a Autoridade Europeia para a Segurança dos Alimentos (EFSA), que os compila e analisa, de modo a promover uma avaliação da exposição e do risco associados ao consumo e atividades que visem a sua minimização. Para reunir, harmonizar e reportar os dados dos planos oficiais, nos domínios dos contaminantes químicos, resíduos de pesticidas, aditivos alimentares, monitorização biológica e resíduos de medicamentos veterinários, foi desenvolvido o Sistema Nacional de Gestão de Dados (SNGD) "Alimentos - PT•ON•DATA", ao abrigo da implementação da transmissão eletrónica de dados de contaminantes para a EFSA, utilizando os modelos de dados Standard Sample Description – SSD e SSD2. Até ao presente, utilizando o SNGD, foram reportados à EFSA 65709 resultados no modelo SSD e 190055 resultados no modelo SSD2. A criação e atualização do SNGD permitiram a centralização e harmonização dos dados produzidos a nível nacional e uma maior automatização de processos, facilitando o tratamento, disponibilização, utilização e transmissão eletrónica para a EFSA, contribuindo para uma melhoria da qualidade, integridade e consistência finais dos dados.Portugal, as other Member states of the European Union, plans and performs annual control plans to ensure the quality and safety of food and feed, involving the collection of various analytical data in different domains. The data obtained in this context are reported to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which compiles and analyzes them in order to promote exposure and risk assessment associated with consumption and activities aimed at its minimization. In order to collect, harmonize and report to EFSA the data from the official plans, in the fields of chemical contaminants, pesticide residues, food additives, biological monitoring and veterinary medicinal residues, the National Data Management System (NDMS) “Alimentos - PT•ON•DATA", under the implementation of electronic transmission of food contaminant data to EFSA, using the Standard Sample Description models - SSD and SSD2. To date, 65709 results have been reported to EFSA in the SSD model and 190055 results in the SSD2 model, using the NDMS. The creation and adaptation of the NDMS allowed the compilation and harmonization of data produced at national level and enhanced process automation, facilitating the treatment, availability, utilization and electronic transmission to EFSA, contributing to an improvement of the final quality, integrity and consistency of the data.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pilot project on the implementation of FoodEx2 as part of the Standard Sample Description for the electronic transmission of harmonised chemical occurrence data to EFSA (NP/EFSA/DCM/2012/03/01)

Relatório Final do ProjetoEFSA supporting publication 2013:EN-454 (External Scientific Report)EFSA's Working Group on Food Classification launched in late 2011 the first version of a new and more comprehensive classification and description system for food and feed suitable for exposure assessment in different areas of food safety which was designated FoodEx2. Before being fully implemented, FoodEx2 needs to be tested in different applications, and commented on by users at national level and consequently be improved. Thus, in parallel to the development and implementation of the ‟CFP/EFSA/DATEX2011/01 - Implementation of Electronic Transmission of Chemical Occurrence Data in Portugal‟ project, INSA submitted an offer to the tender „Pilot projects on the implementation of FoodEx2 as part of the Standard Sample Description for the electronic transmission of harmonised chemical occurrence data to EFSA‟. Foodex2 system consists of a large number of individual food items, representing the minimum level of detail necessary to code/describe a food and feed sample to estimate dietary exposure, aggregated in groups and broader categories of food in a hierarchical structure like „parent-child‟ relationship. This characterization is improved with the use of facets. The term facet refers to a set of descriptors which allow detailing the characteristics of a food product according to various aspects such as physical state or preservation technique, among others. These activities of this project performed by INSA in the period October 2012-April 2013 are summarised in the present report.EFS

Alimentos PT.ON.DATA - Contaminantes químicos na cadeia alimentar em Portugal em amostras do controlo oficial

A recolha de dados analíticos de géneros alimentícios e alimentos para animais é uma importante tarefa da Autoridade Europeia para a Segurança dos Alimentos (EFSA) e uma componente essencial na avaliação do risco associado à alimentação. Os Estados Membros (EM) têm o dever de transmitir para a EFSA os resultados do Controlo Oficial sendo os contaminantes químicos (CQ) uma das áreas a reportar. Os CQ podem estar presentes nos alimentos devido à contaminação ambiental, processo de fabrico, manipulação e transporte e, mesmo quando presentes em quantidades abaixo dos limites legais, o seu efeito cumulativo poderá trazer consequências graves para a saúde humana e animal. Para melhorar a comparabilidade técnica dos dados que recebe e analisa, a EFSA desenvolveu um modelo de dados Standard Sample Description (SSD), de utilização obrigatória para a transmissão de dados pelos EM. O INSA, em colaboração com várias entidades nacionais competentes para o Controlo Oficial, desenvolveu o sistema alimentos PT.ON.DATA para recolha, validação, transformação em modelo SSD e criação de ficheiros em formato XML para transmissão para a EFSA dos dados de CQ. O sistema criado permitiu ainda concentrar e harmonizar os dados produzidos pelas diversas entidades competentes, possibilitando uma melhor utilização dos mesmos. O sistema possui dados de contaminantes químicos do controlo oficial desde 2009 existindo atualmente 17149 resultados de géneros alimentícios (47,9 %) e 18644 resultados de alimentos para animais (52,1 %), distribuídos por quatro grupos de CQ, dos quais: 4618 (12,9%) para o grupo de contaminantes do processo, maioritariamente dioxinas e PCBs; 613 (1,7 %) para o grupo de contaminantes ambientais, sobretudo histamina (incluída no grupo das toxinas desde 2012) e hidroximetilfurfural; 18531 (51.8 %) para o grupo das toxinas, maioritariamente aflatoxinas (B1, B2, G1, G2); e 12031 (33,6 %) para o grupo dos metais e substâncias inorgânicas, maioritariamente cádmio, chumbo e mercúrio.EFS