Reabilitação urbana sustentável – modelo de intervenção para o espaço público

Com o acentuado ritmo de urbanização nos centros das cidades, surgiram problemas de ordem ambiental, social e económica, que se constituem, nos nossos dias, como um desafio para a descoberta de um futuro sustentável para as urbes. O conceito de “sustentabilidade” tem vindo a ganhar importância nas últimas décadas, nomeadamente no sector da construção. As intervenções de reabilitação urbana sobre o espaço público assumem-se como uma prioridade nacional e uma oportunidade para um Desenvolvimento Urbano Sustentável. Esta área, para além de contribuir para o equilíbrio social e a melhoria da qualidade de vida das populações, é também uma actividade determinante para a dinamização económica, a geração de emprego e a poupança de recursos naturais (Amado, et al., 2012). O planeamento urbano assume um papel determinante na implementação dos objectivos da reabilitação urbana. A preocupação com o desenvolvimento equilibrado das cidades tem motivado o desenvolvimento de diversos estudos com propostas de medidas para uma reabilitação urbana sustentável. A nível político têm sido implementados alguns programas como o JESSICA e o Lx-Europa 2020, bem como o surgimento das Sociedades de Reabilitação Urbanas. Diversos países, a nível mundial, têm vindo a desenvolver e adoptar instrumentos para auxílio e avaliação das medidas definidas nos planos das suas cidades. Esses instrumentos, que se baseiam em indicadores de sustentabilidade, representam uma função importante na aplicação das medidas estratégicas, pois permitem avaliar o desempenho ao longo do tempo de determinado parâmetro e adoptar medidas de recuperação em tempo útil. A utilização de indicadores de sustentabilidade possibilita o tratamento de informações que são avaliadas quantitativamente ou qualitativamente, conduzindo à descrição e evolução de determinado dado das cidades. O presente trabalho surge com o objectivo de, a partir dos problemas considerados determinantes para a reabilitação do espaço público (mobilidade, segurança e diversidade), e com base nos trabalhos que têm vindo a ser desenvolvidos com vista a um futuro sustentável, desenvolver uma ferramenta, de fácil utilização e interpretação, que auxilie as entidades competentes na elaboração dos planos estratégicos, na avaliação e monitorização das acções de reabilitação urbana de forma sustentável

Tratamento interdisciplinar – Periodontologia e Ortodontia

Poster apresentado nas XXIII Jornadas Internacionais de Medicina Dentária do ISCSEM. Egas Moniz, Caparica, Portugal. 20-21 Março 201

A perceção de responsabilidade social das organizações, o bem-estar no trabalho e os comportamentos no trabalho

A responsabilidade social das organizações (RSO) é um tema atual, e tem vindo a constituir-se uma preocupação de primeira ordem nas empresas, influenciando os seus negócios e relações com as diversas partes interessadas. Contudo, o estudo do impacto da RSO a um nível individual, em particular, nos colaboradores, tem sido pouco aprofundado. Por isso, este estudo pretende, em primeiro lugar, contribuir para o colmatar desta falha, através da investigação do papel da RSO ao nível dos comportamentos de trabalho, em particular, os comportamentos próprios de papel (CPP) e os comportamentos de cidadania organizacional (CCO). A identificação de variáveis que permitam ajudar a explicar de que forma a perceção de RSO se relaciona com os comportamentos de trabalho é igualmente relevante. Nesse sentido, foi analisado o potencial papel mediador do bem-estar no trabalho. Foi recolhida uma amostra de 156 indivíduos, através de um questionário distribuído presencialmente e online, com o objetivo de compreender a perceção dos colaboradores face ao envolvimento da organização em práticas de RSO (trabalhadores, comunidade e ambiente, económica), a satisfação no trabalho, o bem-estar afetivo e os comportamentos de trabalho. Os principais resultados revelaram que os CPP são explicados pela perceção de RSO económica. Contudo, o efeito de mediação do bem-estar afetivo nesta relação não se verificou. Houve um efeito significativo entre a perceção de RSO para com os colaboradores e o bem-estar afetivo, bem como um efeito significativo da perceção desta dimensão e da dimensão económica na satisfação no trabalho. Este estudo contribui para o desenvolvimento da literatura sobre RSO, bem como para as organizações interessadas em promover os comportamentos de trabalho e o bem-estar dos seus colaboradores, através da implementação de práticas de gestão de recursos humanos alinhadas com a implementação de práticas de RSO.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a very current theme and organizations have been considering it, more and more, as a major concern, influencing their businesses and relationships with interested parties. However, despite the diversity of research on this subject, the impact of CSR at the individual level, namely on employees, has been scarcely studied. Therefore, this paper aims primarily to address that shortage, by investigating the role of CSR on work behaviour, in particular, in-role behaviours (IRB‟s) and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB‟s). The identification of factors that help explaining in which way the perception of CSR is related to work behaviour is equally relevant. For this, the potential mediating role of job-related well-being in that relationship was analysed. A sample of 158 participants was collected from organizations of a wide range of sectors of activity, through a questionnaire distributed in person and online, which aimed to understand the perception of employees regarding the organization‟s involvement in CSR practices (torwards workers, community and environment, economic), job satisfaction, affective well-being and work behaviours. The main results revealed that IRB‟s are explained by economic CSR perception. However, the mediating effect of affective well-being in this relationship was not supported. In addition, it was verified a significant effect between the perception of CSR towards employees and affective well-being, as well as a significant effect on the perception of this dimension and the economic one on job satisfaction. This paper contributes to the development of literature about CSR besides contributing to organizations interested in promoting work behaviour and job-related well-being, through the implementation of human resources management practices aligned with the implementation of CSR practices

Training, exhaustion, and commitment of temporary agency workers: A test of employability perceptions

Versão pós-print.The aim of this study was to analyse whether the social exchange between temporary agency workers (TAWs) and the client organization is associated with a perception of training. In this study, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model that accounts for TAWs’ exhaustion and desire to obtain a direct contract with the client company in the relationship between the perception of training and affective commitment. Our hypotheses were tested on a sample of 425 blue-collar workers from four Portuguese companies with temporary agency work contracts. Our findings support a conditional indirect relationship between the perception of TAWs that the training provided by the client company facilitates their internal employability and their commitment towards this company via exhaustion for those TAWs who have a low desire to have a direct contract with this company. In addition, our findings show that TAWs do not reciprocally respond to the training that promotes external employability, as this factor is not associated with the affective commitment of these individuals, although exhaustion is associated with this perception. Moreover, we discuss the implications of these findings for the human resource management of TAWs

Genetic Variants Underlying Risk of Intracranial Aneurysms: Insights from a GWAS in Portugal

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a life-threatening event that most frequently leads to severe disability and death. Its most frequent cause is the rupture of a saccular intracranial aneurysm (IA), which is a blood vessel dilation caused by disease or weakening of the vessel wall. Although the genetic contribution to IA is well established, to date no single gene has been unequivocally identified as responsible for IA formation or rupture. We aimed to identify IA susceptibility genes in the Portuguese population through a pool-based multistage genome-wide association study. Replicate pools were allelotyped in triplicate in a discovery dataset (100 IA cases and 92 gender-matched controls) using the Affymetrix Human SNP Array 6.0. Top SNPs (absolute value of the relative allele score difference between cases and controls |RASdiff|≥13.0%) were selected for technical validation by individual genotyping in the discovery dataset. From the 101 SNPs successfully genotyped, 99 SNPs were nominally associated with IA. Replication of technically validated SNPs was conducted in an independent replication dataset (100 Portuguese IA cases and 407 controls). rs4667622 (between UBR3 and MYO3B), rs6599001 (between SCN11A and WDR48), rs3932338 (214 kilobases downstream of PRDM9), and rs10943471 (96 kilobases upstream of HTR1B) were associated with IA (unadjusted allelic chi-square tests) in the datasets tested (discovery: 6.84E-04≤P≤1.92E-02, replication: 2.66E-04≤P≤2.28E-02, and combined datasets: 6.05E-05≤P≤5.50E-04). Additionally, we confirmed the known association with IA of rs1333040 at the 9p21.3 genomic region, thus validating our dataset. These novel findings in the Portuguese population warrant further replication in additional independent studies, and provide additional candidates to more comprehensively understand IA etiopathogenesis.FCT grant: (CMUP-ERI/TPE/0028/2013), FCT fellowships and research contracts (SFRH/BPD/35737/2007, SFRH/BPD/70008/2010, SFRH/BD/43895/2008 and Ciência and Investigator- FCT contracts)

New Tool for Signal Patients at Risk

Introduction: Pancreas transplantation is currently the only treatment that can re-establish normal endocrine pancreatic function. Despite all efforts, pancreas allograft survival and rejection remain major clinical problems. The purpose of this study was to identify features that could signal patients at risk of pancreas allograft rejection. Methods: We collected 74 features from 79 patients who underwent simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplantation (SPK) and used two widely-applicable classification methods, the Naive Bayesian Classifier and Support Vector Machine, to build predictive models. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and classification accuracy to evaluate the predictive performance via leave-one-out cross-validation. Results: Rejection events were identified in 13 SPK patients (17.8%). In feature selection approach, it was possible to identify 10 features, namely: previous treatment for diabetes mellitus with long-term Insulin (U/I/day), type of dialysis (peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, or pre-emptive), de novo DSA, vPRA_Pre-Transplant (%), donor blood glucose, pancreas donor risk index (pDRI), recipient height, dialysis time (days), warm ischemia (minutes), recipient of intensive care (days). The results showed that the Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine classifiers prediction performed very well, with an AUROC and classification accuracy of 0.97 and 0.87, respectively, in the first model and 0.96 and 0.94 in the second model. Conclusion: Our results indicated that it is feasible to develop successful classifiers for the prediction of graft rejection. The Naive Bayesian generated nomogram can be used for rejection probability prediction, thus supporting clinical decision making.publishersversionpublishe

A Gene Expression Signature to Select Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients for Liver Transplantation

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.OBJECTIVE: To propose a new decision algorithm combining biomarkers measured in a tumor biopsy with clinical variables, to predict recurrence after liver transplantation (LT). SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Liver cancer is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-related mortality. LT is the best treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients but the scarcity of organs makes patient selection a critical step. Additionally, clinical criteria widely applied in patient eligibility decisions miss potentially curable patients while selecting patients that relapse after transplantation. METHODS: A literature systematic review singled out candidate biomarkers whose RNA levels were assessed by quantitative PCR in tumor tissue from 138 HCC patients submitted to LT (>5 y follow up, 32% beyond Milan criteria). The resulting four gene signature was combined with clinical variables to develop a decision algorithm using machine learning approaches. The method was named HepatoPredict. RESULTS: HepatoPredict identifies 99% disease-free patients (>5 y) from a retrospective cohort, including many outside clinical criteria (16%-24%), thus reducing the false negative rate. This increased sensitivity is accompanied by an increased positive predictive value (88,5%-94,4%) without any loss of long-term overall survival or recurrence rates for patients deemed eligible by HepatoPredict; those deemed ineligible display marked reduction of survival and increased recurrence in the short and long term. CONCLUSIONS: HepatoPredict outperforms conventional clinical-pathologic selection criteria, (Milan, UCSF) providing superior prognostic information. Accurately identifying which patients most likely benefit from LT enables an objective stratification of waiting lists and information-based allocation of optimal versus suboptimal organs.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

The effect of polymer/plasticiser ratio in film forming solutions on the properties of chitosan films

In this work physical-chemical properties of chitosan/ glycerol film forming solutions (FFS) and the resulting films were analysed. Solutions were prepared using different concentrations of plasticising agent (glycerol) and chitosan. Films were produced by solvent casting and equilibrated in a controlled atmosphere. FFS water activity and rheological behaviour were determined. Films water content, solubility, water vapour and oxygen permeabilities, thickness, and mechanical and thermal properties were determined. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was also used to study the chitosan/glycerol interactions. Results demonstrate that FFS chitosan concentration influenced solutions consistency coefficient and this was related with differences in films water retention and structure. Plasticiser addition led to an increase in films moisture content, solubility and water vapour permeability, water affinity and structural changes. Films thermo-mechanical properties are significantly affected by both chitosan and glycerol addition. FTIR experiments confirm these results. This work highlights the importance of glycerol and water plasticisation in films properties.This work was supported by National Funds from FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, through project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0016/2011.Authors Joana F. Fundo, Andrea C. Galvis-Sanchez and Mafalda A. C. Quintas acknowledge FCT for research grants SFRH/ BD / 62176 / 2009, SFRH/BPD/37890/2007 and SFRH / BPD / 41715 / 2007, respectively

Viral genetic clustering and transmission dynamics of the 2022 mpox outbreak in Portugal

Pathogen genome sequencing during epidemics enhances our ability to identify and understand suspected clusters and investigate their relationships. Here, we combine genomic and epidemiological data of the 2022 mpox outbreak to better understand early viral spread, diversification and transmission dynamics. By sequencing 52% of the confirmed cases in Portugal, we identified the mpox virus sublineages with the highest impact on case numbers and fitted them into a global context, finding evidence that several international sublineages probably emerged or spread early in Portugal. We estimated a 62% infection reporting rate and that 1.3% of the population of men who have sex with men in Portugal were infected. We infer the critical role played by sexual networks and superspreader gatherings, such as sauna attendance, in the dissemination of mpox virus. Overall, our findings highlight genomic epidemiology as a tool for the real-time monitoring and control of mpox epidemics, and can guide future vaccine policy in a highly susceptible population.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio