Healing with plants and affection, José Craveiro a practioner of traditional medicine in Portugal

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Contribution of ICT to Improve Learning of People with Special Educational Needs: A Comparative Perspective between Public School and Private School

Assuming the positive impact of Information and Communication Technologies on learning of students with Intellectual and Developmental Difficulties and considering the articulation of the public system and the particular and cooperative system of schooling of these students in Portugal we will seek to guide a research in a comparative perspective according to an empirical approach, framed in the Comparative paradigm.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Strategies for Creative Tourism Activities in Pandemic Contexts: The Case of the ‘Saídas de Mestre’ Project

The development of creative tourism in small towns in rural areas has been the subject of growing interest and research from different perspectives. As part of the national CREATOUR project, which took place in Portugal over about four years, various organisations with relevant activity in the cultural aspect of creative tourism were analysed, constituting a successful reference at a national and international level. However, since mid-2020, the health crisis owing to the pandemic made it necessary to reflect and work under new circumstances for tourism, in contexts not previously planned for, and at the same time as continuing to champion sustainable development. It is in this context that the present study emerges, the aim of which is to identify organizations’ strategies for adaptation within the scope of creative tourism activities in a pandemic situation. This empirical approach is anchored in the case study of the activities of the ‘Saídas de Mestre’ project based on intangible cultural heritage, using in-depth analysis of strategies developed to mitigate the effects of supply and demand constraints. The results show that there was no disintegration of the supply structure, as planned, due to the fact that creative activities are based on the valorisation of the principles of sustainable development and, therefore, depend on endogenous resources and local agents, who remained accessible.This research is funded with a grant from the FCT—National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology, COMPETE, FEDER, Portugal 2020 under the project—UIDB/00057/2020— CIDEHUS. Additionally, this research had the support of CREATOUR project (with the reference 16437), which is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MEC) through national funds and co-funded by FEDER through the Joint Activities Programme of COMPETE 2020 and the Regional Operational Programmes of Lisbon and Algarve

Protagonismos leigos alternativos nas trajetórias de saúde

Tese de Doutoramento em Sociologia na especialidade de Sociologia da Saúde apresentada à Universidade AbertaA expansão dos sistemas alternativos de saúde dá lugar ao pluralismo de cuidados que corresponde a construções reflexivas de percursos que estão para lá da normatividade da medicina. As escolhas leigas destes cuidados correspondem a racionalidades distantes da razão da ciência ao constituírem-se como sistemas explicativos complexos que se referem à experiência subjetiva. Esta tese, de caráter exploratório, problematiza o fenómeno dos ‘protagonismos alternativos nas trajetórias de saúde’ entendido como as atitudes agenciais de construir a própria saúde com recurso a abordagens que não se incluem na biomedicina. Sendo este fenómeno relativamente recente na sociedade portuguesa e praticamente não analisado sociologicamente, interessa-nos situar os pilares analíticos que baseiam a sua compreensão. Estabelecemos um diálogo teórico entre alguns pilares da racionalidade positivista, dualística, cartesiana que marca o conhecimento científico e o pensamento moderno da ciência e da biomedicina (e dos discursos oficiais de saúde que dele derivam) para o questionamento dos sentidos e significados dos movimentos leigos de adesão às medicinas alternativas e complementares. A nossa intenção é o entendimento da ação leiga que se desloca do sistema oficial, biomédico de cuidados de saúde para a procura de vias alternativas de a cuidar e promover. Utilizamos uma abordagem compreensiva que se serve da metodologia qualitativa, através das entrevistas em profundidade com dezoito sujeitos utilizadores dos sistemas de cuidados de saúde alternativos. O que leva os indivíduos a procurar sistemas ‘alternativos’ para promover a saúde e lidar com a doença? Como integram esses sistemas no seu quotidiano e como os articulam com o sistema biomédico? Quais as racionalidades leigas que privilegiam na sua configuração explicativa e interventiva? Como é que eles surgem e se posicionam nas trajetórias de saúde? Nas racionalidades leigas, a ‘saúde’ e o ‘saudável’ são categorias de pensamento que o sujeito constrói na relação consigo mesmo e com a vida, e não apenas com um corpo sintomático ou biológico. A ação que os sujeitos protagonizam na procura das medicinas alternativas deriva desse entendimento de si e dos seus contextos de vida, que não pretendem separar das vivências da saúde, mas antes integrar através de uma saúde holística. Os ‘protagonistas alternativos da saúde’ são sujeitos informados, críticos das estruturas envolventes, e que decidem as suas escolhas de saúde, de forma racional, negociada subjetivamente, no quadro de possibilidades a que cada um pode aceder. Assim como as racionalidades leigas, eles apresentam linhas de proximidade e elementos diferenciadores entre si. Neste estudo encontrámos dois perfis-tipo de protagonismos alternativos na saúde: o ‘pragmático’ e o ‘criativo’.The emergence of alternative health systems gives rise to the plurality of care that corresponds to the reflexive construction of pathways that are beyond the normativity of medicine. These choices correspond to lay rationalities of science away from the reason as to constitute complex explanatory systems that refer to subjective experience. This thesis discusses the phenomenon of ' alternative protagonists in trajectories in health' understood as active attitudes to build their own health using approaches that are not included in biomedicine. Once this is a relatively new phenomenon in the portuguese society and has virtually no sociological analysis, we are interested in placing the analytical pillars that sustain their understanding. We establish a theoretical dialogue between some pillars of positivist rationality and Cartesian dualistic that signals the scientific knowledge and modern thought of biomedicine (and official discourses of health that are derived from it) for questioning the sense and meaning of lay movements accession to alternative and complementary medicines. Our intention is to understand the lay action that moves out from the official system, biomedical health care for the search for alternative ways to nurture and promote. We use a comprehensive approach that makes use of qualitative methodology, through in-depth interviews as a tool for empirical work. What leads individuals to seek systems 'alternative' to promote health and deal with the disease? How to integrate these systems in their daily lives and how to articulate with the biomedical system? What are the lay rationalities that focus alternative systems in its explanatory and interventional configurations. In lay rationalities, 'health' and 'healthy' are categories of thought that the subject builds on the relationship with himself and life, and not just a symptomatic body. The action that subjects promote in the search of alternative medicines derive from this understanding of themselves and their life contexts that they do not want to separate from health experiences. The 'alternative health actors' are informed subjects, critical of surrounding structures, deciding about their health choices, in a rational, negotiated way, within the framework of possibilities that each one can access.In this study we found two profiles-type of health alternative protagonists: the 'pragmatic' and 'creative'

Educação digital, pandemia e desigualdades de género

A proposta deste capítulo é refletir sobre o papel da educação no combate às desigualdades e no empoderamento das mulheres, cruzando-a com algumas das desigualdades de género estruturais que continuam a afetar a vida das mulheres em Portugal. Daremos ainda destaque ao contexto de crise gerado pela pandemia da Covid-19, e às consequentes transformações ocorridas no ensino, que trouxeram a público alguns dos constrangimentos e potencialidades da educação digital, contribuindo para o debate sobre o papel deste tipo de educação no empoderamento das mulheres.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functional distribution of Ca2+-coupled P2 purinergic receptors among adrenergic and noradrenergic bovine adrenal chromaffin cells

Background Adrenal chromaffin cells mediate acute responses to stress through the release of epinephrine. Chromaffin cell function is regulated by several receptors, present both in adrenergic (AD) and noradrenergic (NA) cells. Extracellular ATP exerts excitatory and inhibitory actions on chromaffin cells via ionotropic (P2X) and metabotropic (P2Y) receptors. We have taken advantage of the actions of the purinergic agonists ATP and UTP on cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) to determine whether P2X and P2Y receptors might be asymmetrically distributed among AD and NA chromaffin cells. Results The [Ca2+]i and the [Na+]i were recorded from immunolabeled bovine chromaffin cells by single-cell fluorescence imaging. Among the ATP-sensitive cells ~40% did not yield [Ca2+]i responses to ATP in the absence of extracellular Ca2+ (Ca2+o), indicating that they expressed P2X receptors and did not express Ca2+- mobilizing P2Y receptors; the remainder expressed Ca2+-mobilizing P2Y receptors. Relative to AD-cells approximately twice as many NA-cells expressed P2X receptors while not expressing Ca2+- mobilizing P2Y receptors, as indicated by the proportion of cells lacking [Ca2+]i responses and exhibiting [Na+]i responses to ATP in the absence and presence of Ca2+o, respectively. The density of P2X receptors in NA-cells appeared to be 30–50% larger, as suggested by comparing the average size of the [Na+]i and [Ca2+]i responses to ATP. Conversely, approximately twice as many AD-cells expressed Ca2+-mobilizing P2Y receptors, and they appeared to exhibit a higher (~20%) receptor density. UTP raised the [Ca2+]i in a fraction of the cells and did not raise the [Na+]i in any of the cells tested, confirming its specificity as a P2Y agonist. The cell density of UTP-sensitive P2Y receptors did not appear to vary among AD- and NA-cells. Conclusion Although neither of the major purinoceptor types can be ascribed to a particular cell phenotype, P2X and Ca2+-mobilizing P2Y receptors are preferentially located to noradrenergic and adrenergic chromaffin cells, respectively. ATP might, in addition to an UTP-sensitive P2Y receptor, activate an UTP-insensitive P2Y receptor subtype. A model for a short-loop feedback interaction is presented whereby locally released ATP acts upon P2Y receptors in adrenergic cells, inhibiting Ca2+ influx and contributing to terminate evoked epinephrine secretio

Identities mirrored by elderly residents in Cape Verde

No imaginário social prevalecem construções sociais da velhice que influenciam a forma como a sociedade e o próprio idoso encaram o processo de envelhecimento, o valor conferido à pessoa e aos seus contextos relacionais próximos e distais (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Com este estudo descritivo, exploratório, de abordagem qualitativa pretende-se analisar como o idoso residente em Cabo Verde perceciona e vivencia o seu processo de envelhecimento e os seus contextos relacionais. Os dados foram recolhidos numa amostra de conveniência, através de entrevistas semiestruturadas administradas individualmente que, depois de transcritas, foram submetidas à análise de conteúdo (Bardin, 2008; Kvale, 1996). Participaram neste estudo 8 idosos, de ambos géneros, com uma média de 76.63 anos, casados, reformados e sem relação de parentesco. Os dados corroboram uma perceção da velhice como um fenómeno natural e uma construção identitária positiva, pautada pela continuidade no tempo. Destaca-se ainda uma identidade espelhada do idoso no mundo com os outros.In the social imaginary there are social constructions of aging that influence the way society and the elderly face the aging process, the value given to the person and to their near and distal relational contexts (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). This descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative approach aims to analyze how the elderly residents in Cape Verde experience and perceive their aging process and their relational contexts. Data were collected from a convenience sample, through semi-structured interviews individually administered. Aftertranscription they were subject to content analysis (Bardin, 2008; Kvale, 1996). In this study 8 elderly of both genders participated, with a mean of 76.63 years, married, retired and unrelated. The data corroborate a perception of aging as a natural phenomenon and a positive identity construction, marked by continuity in time. Noteworthy is also a mirror identity of the elderly in the world with others.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio