Findings from the Portuguese National Health Survey 2014

Vaccination is an effective strategy to prevent tetanus, and in Portugal this service is provided free of charge. Despite this, immigrants reported lower tetanus vaccination coverage than did Portuguese natives. The objective of this study was to identify sociodemographic, migration-related, and access-to-care factors associated with tetanus vaccination coverage among adult immigrants, using data from the Portuguese National Health Survey 2014. For the sample of 1277 immigrants aged ≥18 years, we estimated self-reported tetanus vaccination within the preceding 10 years and its determinants using complex samples logistic regression. The overall self-reported tetanus vaccination coverage was 79.5% (95% CI: 75.8-82.8). Age (adjusted odd ratio (aOR) per 1 year age increase = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95-0.99), higher household income per adult (aOR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.19-0.96), having Portuguese citizenship (aOR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.25-4.24), having private health insurance (aOR = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.06-3.71), and contact with family/general physician in the last 12 months (aOR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.01-2.51) were associated with self-reported tetanus vaccination coverage among adult immigrants. We also found significant disparities in coverage between regions of residence. This study identified several determinants associated with self-reported tetanus vaccination coverage among adult immigrants in Portugal. These findings may help policymakers to design specific interventions to increase tetanus vaccination coverage among this population.publishersversionpublishe

Embodied music cognition: towards the understanding of gesture in saxophone performance

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Listening To Teachers’ Voices: Constructs On Music Performance Anxiety In Artistic Education

Music performance anxiety is an acknowledged condition amongst musicians from early learning stages to professional levels. Anxiety experienced in uncontrolled levels translates into the development of physiological and psychological symptoms that impair performance skills and may, ultimately, lead to post-traumatic stress disorders and drop-out of music-related activities. This paper focuses on teacher’s voices to justify the need for inclusion of anxiety management training in music schools’ curricula as means of promoting well-being, coping with stress-inducing situations, and boosting growing musicians’ performative experiences through positive pedagogies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to four instrument teachers of a Portuguese institution of specialized artistic education to collect data about previous experiences, conceptions, and ways of teaching MPA managing. The importance of integrating coping strategies in pedagogical practices, its obstacles and benefits, alongside suggestions for conceiving viable intervention projects in schools were discussed by the interviewed and hereby critically presented with respect to existing literature

Baumol’s cost disease in the health care sector

The concern for the impact of the Health Care costs in private and public spending has been increasing because of its effect on the country’s financial stability. Therefore, several drivers of Health Care Expenditure have been studied. However, one of its most relevant drivers is Baumol’s cost disease. Baumol (1967) defines the cost disease as the difference between the wage growth in the overall economy and productivity growth in the services sector, such as the health care sector. This excess in wages causes the unit costs in the health care sector to increase over time. In order to understand if there is enough margin for policymakers to establish effective policies to control for the rise in health care costs, this thesis studies the impact of Baumol’s cost disease in this sector in OECD countries. To do so, I define an instrument, the adjusted Baumol variable, to measure Baumol’s cost disease and apply it to a panel data set containing 18 OECD member countries from 1970 to 2016. The results found show that the adjusted Baumol variable is explaining from 20% to 80% of the increase in Health Care expenditure, depending on the definition of the Baumol sector. These results may imply that policymakers still have some margin to implement policies since the rise in Health Care expenditure is partially explained by Baumol’s cost disease.O impacto do aumento dos custos na despesa pública e privada relativos ao Sector da Saúde tem sido motivo de preocupação, uma vez que estes afetam a estabilidade financeira do país. Assim, foram estudados vários fatores influenciadores dos gastos associados ao sector da Saúde. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, a doença de custos de Baumol foi um dos fatores com maior impacto no crescimento dos referidos custos. Baumol (1967) define a doença dos custos como sendo a diferença entre o crescimento dos salários na Economia e o crescimento da produtividade no sector dos serviços, como é o caso do sector da saúde. Portanto, esta diferença faz com que os custos unitários no sector de saúde aumentem ao longo do tempo. Esta tese estuda o impacto da doença dos custos de Baumol no sector da Saúde com o intuito de compreender se existe espaço suficiente para a introdução de políticas eficazes na contenção do aumento dos custos associados a este sector. Portanto, foi definido um instrumento – variável de Baumol ajustada – para medir a doença de custos de Baumol e, posteriormente, foi aplicada com um conjunto de dados em painel, contendo 18 países membros da OCDE de 1970 a 2016. Os resultados encontrados mostram que a referida variável explica entre 20% a 80% do aumento dos gastos com a saúde dependendo da definição do sector de Baumol. Conclui-se que existe margem para implementar políticas pois o aumento das de saúde não é totalmente explicado pela doença dos custos de Baumol

Real-time labview assessment on adsorption systems

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química e BioquímicaThis work aims to develop a LabVIEW interface for monitoring, controlling and automate the simultaneous experimental determination of one adsorption isotherm of gas in two distinct solid adsorbents. The magnetic suspension balance has two samples and this way it’s possible to determinate, simultaneously, the equilibrium adsorption for two different adsorbents. The developed software allows the registration of weight values and the control of the state of the balance, which has three main positions (ZP, MP1 and MP2). To determine a isotherm point is necessary for the system to reach the equilibrium. The software records the different values of ZP, MP1 and MP2, calculating the adsorbed mass values for each of the adsorbents. When the average of the adsorbed masses remain constant, the pressure value is changed and is possible to proceed with the determination of a new point isotherm. The software was developed in LabVIEW utilizing a software previously developed for a balance with only one sample. The old software was built using just one interface, which made the process of changing routines and new programming interfaces complicated. It was developed a sketch of a new software, now built in five separate blocks . To validate the interface for monitoring the magnetic balance, multiple tests were conducted at the installation, in order to confirm that the interface gets accurate results. The tests measured adsorption isotherms for CO2 in two simultaneous adsorbents, MIL-53(Al) and Zeolite 5A at different temperatures: 30 °C, 50 °C and 80 °C. From the results, it can be confirmed that the developed interface is acquiring the values of the weight correctly and applying well the correction of the zero point, allowing the user to simplify the process of determining adsorption isotherms

Enzymatic activity mastered by altering metal coordination spheres

J Biol Inorg Chem (2008) 13:1185–1195 DOI 10.1007/s00775-008-0414-3Metalloenzymes control enzymatic activity by changing the characteristics of the metal centers where catalysis takes place. The conversion between inactive and active states can be tuned by altering the coordination number of the metal site, and in some cases by an associated conformational change. These processes will be illustrated using heme proteins (cytochrome c nitrite reductase, cytochrome c peroxidase and cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase), non-heme proteins (superoxide reductase and [NiFe]-hydrogenase), and copper proteins (nitrite and nitrous oxide reductases) as examples. These examples catalyze electron transfer reactions that include atom transfer, abstraction and insertion

Uso de redes mosquiteiras em crianças menores de 5 anos, numa zona rural de Angola

As crianças com menos de 5 anos são um dos grupos mais vulneráveis à malária. O uso de redes mosquiteiras tratadas com inseticida (MTIs) é considerada uma medida eficaz de prevenção e tem sido alvo de investimento internacional como forma de reduzir a morbilidade e mortalidade desta doença. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar o uso de redes mosquiteiras nesta faixa etária

O impacto da autoeficácia, das expectativas de resultados e do suporte do meio no ajustamento académico dos estudantes de engenharia informática

Dissertação de mestrado em Psicologia da Educação, Desenvolvimento e Aconselhamento, apresentada à Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.Na presente tese apresenta-se o modelo sóciocognitivo de satisfação de carreira desenvolvido no âmbito da teoria sóciocognitiva de carreira (TSCC), por Lent e colaboradores. Este modelo permitirá explicar o insucesso académico nos estudantes de engenharia informática, assim como os fatores responsáveis pelo seu ajustamento académico. Para uma explicação mais completa do problema visado nesta dissertação recorreu-se ainda à teoria da autodeterminação (TAD), uma vez que este quadro conceptual permite elucidar mais cabalmente as ligações esperadas entre as expectativas de resultados intrínsecas com a motivação, os objetivos e a satisfação com a licenciatura em engenharia informática. Em geral, os resultados desta investigação corroboram as hipóteses derivadas da revisão da literatura efetuada e constituem pistas relevantes para o desenvolvimento de estratégias de intervenção psicossociais apropriadas, para ajudar os estudantes de engenharia informática a construírem trajetórias de sucesso académico.This thesis presents a social cognitive career satisfaction model developed according to the social cognitive career theory (SCCT), by Lent and colleagues. This model will explain the academic underachievement of computer engineering students, as well as the factors which influence their academic adjustment. For a fuller explanation of the problematic addressed in this dissertation the self-determination theory (SDT) was also used. The conceptual framework provided by SDT allows us to elucidate the expected connections between the intrinsic outcome expectations and motivation, goals and satisfaction with the computer engineering degree. In general, the study results confirm the hypotheses derived from the literature review and provide relevant clues for the development of proper psychosocial intervention strategies to help computer engineering students to consolidate their academic achievement trajectories

The tetranuclear copper active site of nitrous oxide reductase: the CuZ center

J Biol Inorg Chem (2011) 16:183–194 DOI 10.1007/s00775-011-0753-3This review focuses on the novel CuZ center of nitrous oxide reductase, an important enzyme owing to the environmental significance of the reaction it catalyzes, reduction of nitrous oxide, and the unusual nature of its catalytic center, named CuZ. The structure of the CuZ center, the unique tetranuclear copper center found in this enzyme, opened a novel area of research in metallobiochemistry. In the last decade, there has been progress in defining the structure of the CuZ center, characterizing the mechanism of nitrous oxide reduction, and identifying intermediates of this reaction. In addition, the determination of the structure of the CuZ center allowed a structural interpretation of the spectroscopic data, which was supported by theoretical calculations. The current knowledge of the structure, function, and spectroscopic characterization of the CuZ center is described here. We would like to stress that although many questions have been answered, the CuZ center remains a scientific challenge, with many hypotheses still being formed

The electron transfer complex between nitrous oxide reductase and its electron donors

J Biol Inorg Chem (2011) 16:1241–1254 DOI 10.1007/s00775-011-0812-9Identifying redox partners and the interaction surfaces is crucial for fully understanding electron flow in a respiratory chain. In this study, we focused on the interaction of nitrous oxide reductase (N2OR), which catalyzes the final step in bacterial denitrification, with its physiological electron donor, either a c-type cytochrome or a type 1 copper protein. The comparison between the interaction of N2OR from three different microorganisms, Pseudomonas nautica, Paracoccus denitrificans, and Achromobacter cycloclastes, with their physiological electron donors was performed through the analysis of the primary sequence alignment, electrostatic surface, and molecular docking simulations, using the bimolecular complex generation with global evaluation and ranking algorithm. The docking results were analyzed taking into account the experimental data, since the interaction is suggested to have either a hydrophobic nature, in the case of P. nautica N2OR, or an electrostatic nature, in the case of P. denitrificans N2OR and A. cycloclastes N2OR. A set of well-conserved residues on the N2OR surface were identified as being part of the electron transfer pathway from the redox partner to N2OR(Ala495, Asp519, Val524, His566 and Leu568 numbered according to the P. nautica N2OR sequence). Moreover, we built a model for Wolinella succinogenes N2OR, an enzyme that has an additional c-type-heme-containing domain. The structures of the N2OR domain and the c-type-heme-containing domain were modeled and the full-length structure was obtained by molecular docking simulation of these two domains. The orientation of the c-type-heme-containing domain relative to the N2OR domain is similar to that found in the other electron transfer complexes