Compreendendo o Autismo

O autismo é uma síndrome comportamental que ocorre antes dos três anos de idade, caracterizada por uma tríade de importante atraso na comunicação, no comportamento e na interação social. O autismo é considerado um transtorno de origem biológica multifatorial causado por uma disfunção genética cerebral ou lesões cerebrais adquiridas, com um padrão relativo de características neurocognitivas, mas nenhuma específica que possa ser considerada patognomônica do transtorno.Versão em H

Perceived service quality and health-related quality of life in long-term care

Due to rapid population ageing, long-term care has emerged as a range of services that assure mental, physical and social stability to those with chronic diseases. With a growing importance, the institutions providing care in this sector must assure and enhance the quality of care provided, by evaluating their services based on the patient’ perspective, who have an essential opinion on the assessment of the health services quality. In this sense, the present investigation aims to evaluate the quality of the long-term care provision in Portugal, as well to understand how it is associated with the patients’ health-related quality of life. Considering the existing gap in this field, this research was developed in the Medium Duration and Rehabilitation Unit of Santa Casa da Misericordia in Alhos Vedros. The SERVPERF and the EQ-5D-3L instruments were used to collect the data and its analysis was performed based on descriptive analysis, hypotheses testing and correlations. The results showed that there is an association, although non-significant, of the overall perceived service quality with the improvement of the patients’ health-related quality of life. Additionally, the Responsiveness dimension has reported the highest level of perceived quality, while the Empathy has reported the lowest. The overall perception of service quality provided is good (5 points). On the other hand, the 30 days treatment improved the patients’ capability to walk, to take care of themselves, to perform their usual activities, to feel less anxious/depressed and, thus, the majority of the patients have rated their own health state above 70 points.Com o envelhecimento da população, os cuidados continuados surgiram como um conjunto de serviços que asseguram estabilidade mental, física e social a pacientes com doenças crônicas. Devido à sua crescente importância, as instituições deste sector devem assegurar e potencializar a qualidade do serviço, procurando avaliar estes serviços com base na perspetiva do paciente, sendo que a opinião destes é extremamente importante na avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de saúde. Assim, esta investigação tem como objetivo avaliar a qualidade da prestação de cuidados continuados em Portugal, bem como compreender como está associado à qualidade de vida relacionada com a saúde dos pacientes. Considerando a lacuna existente neste campo, esta pesquisa desenvolveu-se na Unidade de Média Duração e Reabilitação da Santa Casa da Misericórdia em Alhos Vedros. Os instrumentos SERVPERF e EQ-5D-3L foram utilizados na recolha de dados, sendo que a sua análise foi realizada com base em análise descritiva, testes de hipóteses e correlações. Os resultados mostraram que existe uma associação, embora não significativa, entre a qualidade geral percebida pelo paciente relativamente ao serviço e a melhoria da sua qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde. Adicionalmente, a dimensão Responsividade demonstrou ter a melhor avaliação em termos da qualidade percebida pelo paciente, enquanto a Empatia teve a pior avaliação. A perceção geral da qualidade do serviço prestado é boa (5 pontos). Por outro lado, o internamento de 30 dias permitiu melhorar a capacidade dos pacientes para caminhar, realizar as suas atividades habituais/pessoais e para se sentirem menos ansiosos/deprimidos, pelo que a maioria dos pacientes classificou ter um estado de saúde acima 70 pontos

Performance and Degradation Analysis of Operating PV Systems

The environmental concerns together with the decrease in technology cost lead the solar market to growth rapidly along the last decade. The photovoltaic (PV) systems are one of the solar energy alternatives and the silicon solar cells are currently the most widespread technology. Photovoltaic (PV) modules are considered the most reliable component of a photovoltaic system. The reliability and lifetime depends on the modules energy conversion performance and degradation modes. The analysis of monitoring data give insights about the PV system performance along its service time. The comparison between this data and mathematical models configure a way to predict the futures and new PV installations performance. The goal of this study is to understand the PV systems performance and degradation along its lifetime. A mathematical model was employed to predict the power output of a real, relatively new operating PV system with respect to environmental parameters temperature, irradiance and cloud coverage. The model used is based on one diode ideality factor and takes into account the parasitic series resistance. The results have been compared with the actual PV output data collected for the year 2014 and show good correlation. As the model predicts the system power output assuming the system in new conditions, the deviation in performance of the real data in comparison to the modeling results need to be further investigated for systems in service for longer time. For this propose, the study presents a condensed review of various causes of degradation in silicon PV modules and techniques to observe and investigate these degradation mechanisms. Major effects on output performance exhibit increase in observed ideality factor n2 and recombination current J02 primarily caused by decrease in minority carrier lifetime, shunts and increase in series resistance. The study further, investigates the governing degradation modes on a ten years old PV crystalline silicon module operating under the similar weather conditions and the resultant effect on its performance. IR imaging for hot spot detection has been employed in examining on this PV module that shows localized damaged regions. PV I-V characteristics reveal some cells performing poorly in the panel due to these degradations. This work may lead to future work on developing models that include dynamic changes in cell/module parameters and techniques to mitigate / inspect / monitor degradation in real time

Does it matter who is ostracizing you?: manipulating warmth and competence social dimensions as the source

Ostracism – the act of being excluded and ignored – has been shown to have negative psychological consequences such as decreases in feelings of belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control, as well as decreases in cognitive performance. Many attempts have been done in the research to find moderators, but the negative consequences seem to happen regardless of individual characteristics such as personality traits or the source of ostracism. Cyberball, a simple virtual ball-tossing game has been widely used and shown to be enough to affect individual psychological well-being. Moreover, just seeing or imagining being the ostracized individual has caused similar responses. Despite the large number of studies of the phenomenon, few studies have measured what ostracized individuals think about the ostracizers and how that affects the ostracism experience. As such, the present research adopted the warmth and competence dimensions from the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to manipulate the source of the ostracism and measure possible more subtle effects of being ostracized. In Study 1, an online experiment, participants were asked to imagine being a character in a scenario describing someone being ostracized or included by Men (a group perceived as having high competence and low warmth) or Women (a group perceived as having low competence and high warmth). Results showed participants who read the ostracized scenario felt worse. No simple differences based on character sex were found, however, character sex and participant sex interacted in their effect on the dependent measures. Study 2 was a similar study performed in the lab using the Cyberball game as a manipulation of ostracism and including a dependent measure of a memory task related to female and male characters. Once again, there were strong effects of ostracism, and interactions between character sex and participant sex on participants’ emotions and mood. Implications are discussed.Ostracismo – o acto de excluir e ignorer – tem mostrado ter consequências psicológicas negativas no(s) ostracizado(s) como uma diminuição de sentimentos de pertença, auto-estima, existência significativa e de controlo, assim como diminuição do desempenho cognitivo. Diversas tentativas têm sido realizadas a fim de encontrar variáveis moderadoras, mas os tais efeitos negativos parecem surgir independentemente de caraterísticas individuais como traços de personalidade ou a origem ostracizante. Cyberball, um jogo virtual simples de arremeçar uma bola tem sido vastamente usado e provado ser suficiente para afectar o bem-estar psicológico. Mais ainda, ver ou imaginar outrem ser ostracizado tem provocado efeitos similares. Apesar do largo número de estudos sobre o fenómeno, poucos têm medido o que os indivíduos ostracizados pensam sobre os ostracizadores e como isso affecta a experiência do ostracismo. Como tal, a presente investigação adoptou os dimensões de warmth and competence do Stereotype Content Model (SCM) para manipular quem ostraciza e medir possíveis efeitos mais subtis de se ser ostracizado. No Estudo 1, uma experiência realizada online, os participantes foram instruídos a imaginarem ser uma personagem num cenário em que a mesma personagem era ostracizada ou incluída por Homens (um grupo percepcionado como tendo alta competence e baixo warmth) ou Mulheres (um grupo percepcionado como tendo baixa competence e alta warmth). Resultados mostraram que quem leu o cenário ostracizado se sentiu pior. A condição do sexo do grupo não mostrou diferenças, porém, o sexo da personagem e dos participantes interagiram no seu efeito sobre as variáveis dependentes. O Estudo 2 foi parecido ao anterior e consistiu em usar o Cyberball em laboratório como manipulador da origem do ostracismo, tendo ainda uma tarefa adicional de memória relacionado com figuras femininas ou masculinas. Uma vez mais, existiram efeitos robustos do ostracismo, e também interacções entre a condição do sexo do grupo ostracizador e sexo dos participantes nas suas emoções e estado de humor. Resultados e implicações são discutidos

Mauritanian foreign policy and the international dimensions of social activism

UID/ANT/04038/2013 ERC-StG-716467This article examines the forms of interplay between the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the international standing recently gained by some of the country's socio-political activists. These different forms of political argumentation are affected by Mauritania's ‘Islamic republic’ label, which, adopted following independence in 1960, has been opportunistically used by the state and has become a double-edged sword when used to legitimate foreign and domestic policies. After discussing official expressions of foreign policy, the article moves on to examine the forms of social activism that have more recently questioned the country's social landscape. The article concludes that Mauritanian foreign policy is in clear relation with a recent shift in the social agenda that questions Mauritania's social structures, political apparatus and the state's formal designation as an Islamic republic.authorsversionpublishe

The relationship between firm size and volatility of stock returns

The relationship between risk and returns its already very popular in financial markets, being the center of hundreds of studies nowadays. Within this wide range of researches, the firm size presents some impact on this relationship, being the smaller firms considered more risky and therefore, tending to reward investors with higher returns. But after all, to what extent is the firm size related with the volatility of such returns? Until today, few authors focused on this topic, motivating our study. In representation of the small and large firms we considered the Russell 2000 and Russell 1000 indexes and concluded that the behavior of the returns differs between these two types of firms. According to our empirical evidence, the small firms are more volatile on the short-run, while the larger firms appear to be more affected by the shocks in a long-term perspective. Quite surprisingly, the negative shocks seem to affect more large firms than the smaller firms. Additionally, we focused our attention on the volatility spillovers across firms and, through the analysis of the FEVD, we concluded that the error variance of the Russell 1000 contributes to explain the error variance of the Russell 2000 in 84.78849%. Based on the DCC model, we confirmed the presence of volatility transmissions, since the conditional correlation tend to increase in periods of crisis.A relação entre risco e retorno já é bastante popular nos mercados financeiros, sendo o centro de centenas de estudos hoje em dia. Dentro deste vasto leque de estudos, a dimensão das empresas apresenta implicâncias nesta relação, sendo que empresas mais pequenas são consideradas mais arriscadas e por isso tendem a recompensar os investidores com um nível de retorno mais elevado. Mas afinal, até que ponto é que a dimensão da empresa está relacionada com a volatilidade dos retornos? Até agora são poucos os autores que se concentraram nesta relação temporal, motivando assim o nosso estudo. Em representação das pequenas e grandes empresas considerámos os índices Russel 2000 e Russell 1000, e concluímos que o comportamento dos retornos difere entre tipos de empresas. De acordo com a nossa evidência, as pequenas empresas têm tendência a ser mais voláteis a curto prazo, enquanto que no longo-prazo as grandes empresas são mais afetadas pelos choques. Curiosamente, as más noticias parecem afetar mais as grandes empresas do que as empresas de menor dimensão. Adicionalmente, concentrámos a nossa atenção nas transmissões de volatilidade entre empresas e, através da análise da FEVD, concluímos que o erro da variância do Russell 1000 contribui para explicar em 84.78849% o erro da variância do Russell 2000. Com base no modelo DCC percebemos que existem transmissões de volatilidade, uma vez que as correlações condicionais tendem a aumentar em períodos de crise