On studying ageism in long-term care: a systematic review of the literature

Background: Ageism in long-term care is pervasive, but it is not easy to define, to identify and to fight it in practice. These difficulties could be overcome if we develop research capable to conceptualize, detect, measure, and understand the multidimensionality and complexity of ageism. Nevertheless, to achieve this, it is fundamental to know how ageism in long-term care has been previously studied. Methods: This paper systematically reviews studies on ageism in long-term care services published before October 2015 and indexed in Web of Science, PubMed, and Social Care Online electronic databases. Electronic searches were complemented with visual scanning of reference lists and hand searching of leading journals in the field of gerontology. Four specific review questions were addressed: Which analytical angles (aetiology, prevalence, manifestations, consequences, and interventions) have been explored? Which theories and concepts have been used? Which methods have been employed? Which variants of ageism have been covered? Results: Studies have focused mainly on the manifestations, etiology, and prevalence of ageism, neglecting its consequences and the interventions to tackle it; a significant number of studies used scales of ageism which, despite being appropriate considering the aims of the research, present important limitations; most studies have focused on residential services, neglecting non-residential services; some of the variants of ageism have been well covered, while implicit and self-ageism have been under-explored. Conclusions: Research on ageism in long-term care services is scarce but important. Much has been done but much remains to be done. An agenda for future research is presented.National Funds by FCT-Foundation for Science and TechnologyCOST (the acronym for European Cooperation in Science and Technology) IS1402 on ageisminfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cross-cultural validation and psychometric evaluation of the Self-Medication Assessment Tool (SMAT) for assessing and optimizing medication therapy management of older people

Background, rationale and objectives: The assessment of medication management ability in the elderly can be performed using specific tools, such as the Self-Medication Assessment Tool, which considers real and simulated regimens. The objective of this study was to perform the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Self-Medication Assessment Tool to European Portuguese and determine its psychometric properties. Methods: The adaptation commenced with the translation/back translation cycle completed by 4 independent bilingual experts. The cultural component was accomplished through an external expert meeting and a longitudinal screening of concepts and construct. The pilot study was carried out in a sample of 150 Portuguese community-dwelling elders. Descriptive data, correlations, internal reliability, response consistency and exploratory factor analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics (v22). Results: The pilot study was carried out in a sample of 150 community-dwelling elders: 112 (74.7%) participants were women; mean age was 74.73 ± 6.43 years. The Self-Medication Assessment Tool (Portuguese version) standard regimen (simulated medication regimen) mean scores were 20.92 ± 6.83 in functional ability and 38.75 ± 5.92 in cognitive ability; the real regimen (medication taken by the elderly) mean scores were 83.74 ± 15.86 in medication recall, 96.96 ± 11.39 in adherence self-report and 4.82 ± 10.1 in intentional non-adherence. Cronbach's α were 0.87 (functional ability), 0.84 (cognitive ability), 0.57 (medication recall), 0.94 (adherence self-report) and 0.79 (intentional non-adherence). The response consistency between test and re-test was verified. Conclusions: We have developed the European Portuguese version of the Self-Medication Assessment Tool with acceptable psychometric properties which can now be employed in the study of the elderly in clinical and research contexts

Avaliação da Qualidade das Escolas: Mecanismos de Regulação e Lógicas de Ação dos Atores Escolares.

A avaliação de qualidade das escolas é uma temática bastante presente na sociedade contemporânea. Assumida como um mecanismo fundamental para conhecer o estado e funcionamento da organização, a avaliação pode contribuir sobremaneira para a melhoria do funcionamento da organização, ou seja para o desenvolvimento da qualidade dos serviços prestados. Tendo em conta que as escolas foram adquirindo alguma autonomia, torna-se fundamental proceder à sua avaliação externa, na perspetiva da prestação de contas (accountability) e das caraterísticas da Nova Gestão Pública. A avaliação de escolas, orientada para potenciar a qualidade dos resultados, da melhoria da prestação do serviço educativo e do exercício das lideranças das organizações escolares, pode também permitir-nos averiguar as relações e perceções existentes entre os diversos atores sociais que fazem parte e formam a escola, de modo a que possamos interpretar a complexidade do sistema, privilegiando as ações e não as intenções. Neste quadro, os atores escolares rentabilizam projetos, estratégias e recursos que sejam uma mais-valia para o estabelecimento de ensino no quadro de processos de avaliação tidos como um ato regulador baseado do conhecimento. Nesta comunicação procuraremos apresentar e fundamentar uma proposta de investigação de doutoramento que toma como objeto de estudo a avaliação e qualidade das escolas sob uma perspetiva sociológica que tenta compreender os mecanismos de regulação e as lógicas de ação entre os atores escolares no quadro das atividades de avaliação destas organizações

Avaliação de Escolas, Regulação e Lógicas de Ação: uma análise Sociológica de caráter Prospetivo.

A avaliação de escolas é percecionada em Portugal como um processo de aprendizagem e reflexão com o objetivo de melhoria contínua das escolas. A avaliação externa e autoavaliação, enquanto processos sociais que mobilizam diversos atores externos e internos às escolas e impactam sobremaneira na organização e nas dinâmicas destas, têm sido uma temática muito refletida e estudada na sociedade atual, nomeadamente no quadro das ciências da educação, em geral, e da sociologia da educação em particular. Nesta comunicação procuramos dar a conhecer e discutir, entre pares, uma investigação que desenvolvemos em torno desta temática, (a avaliação externa de escolas e a autoavaliação) procurando compreender de que forma as lógicas de ação são produto ou elas próprias produtoras de mecanismos de regulação no âmbito da autoavaliação e avaliação externa e antecipar os “futuros possíveis” para estes processos de avaliação externa e interna do agrupamento de escolas que será alvo do estudo de caso em questão. Na nossa intervenção apresentaremos, detalhadamente, a metodologia prospetiva a utilizar na investigação, com destaque para os métodos MACTOR e MORPHOL (Godet, 1993). Refletiremos sobre o interesse da metodologia prospetiva para a nossa investigação sociológica

Investigação Publicada Sobre Avaliação De Escolas Em Portugal: Uma Leitura Da Sociologia.

A avaliação de escolas é uma temática cada vez mais presente, refletida e estudada na sociedade atual, à medida que algumas das políticas públicas reclamam das escolas mais responsabilidade social e a prestação de contas (accountability) à sociedade regularmente. Na última década, muitos foram os trabalhos académicos publicados, oriundos de diversas áreas do conhecimento - das ciências sociais, das ciências humanas e, particularmente, das ciências da educação. Esta comunicação decorre do trabalho já iniciado com o objetivo de realizar, num agrupamento de escolas, um estudo sociológico de cariz qualitativo com os seguintes objetivos: conhecer a perceção dos atores escolares acerca do contributo que a avaliação externa possa ter na melhoria da qualidade das escolas; investigar em que medida as lógicas de ação dos atores escolares impulsionam, obstaculizam ou se manifestam neutras relativamente à eficácia e eficiência desses processos de avaliação e de que forma produtoras de mecanismos de regulação no âmbito da autoavaliação e da avaliação externa; conhecer os objetivos estratégicos dos atores escolares face à avaliação da escola; e, finalmente, aferir a possibilidade destes atores escolares virem a concretizar uma ação estratégica coletiva potenciadora de mecanismos de auto e heteroavaliação (avaliação externa) orientados para a melhoria da qualidade da sua escola. Assim, nesta breve comunicação, apresentamos dados sobre as dissertações publicadas sobre avaliação de escolas em Portugal, desde 2001, e às quais tivemos acesso, e refletiremos sobre o seu interesse para a nossa investigação sociológica

Habitat Variation in Vernal Pool Ecosystems on Both Sides of the Strait of Gibraltar

We studied vernal pool (VP) ecosystems along a latitudinal gradient crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in order to determine its role in the distribution of VP plant communities. We analyzed flora, vegetation, physical–chemical water parameters, and climatic data from two vernal pool areas on both the European (Iberian) and African (Moroccan) sides of the Strait. Despite the minor distance between both territories, the pools clearly differed in species composition and ecology. However, they showed a similar vegetation zonation in growth forms, including isoetid, batrachiid, and helophytic vegetation. The distribution of the plant communities was related to nutrient load, temperature, and precipitation. Water nitrate concentration was higher in Morocco, where VPs are characterized by Isoetes velata subsp. adspersa and Ranunculus saniculifolius communities. Iberian VPs had lower water nitrate content, and were characterized by Isoetes velata subsp. velata and Ranunculus peltatus communities. We think this nutrient difference is likely to be caused by the different land management regime on each side of the Strait, with more intensive agriculture in Morocco. Long-term (historical) and present-day (ecological) processes have been proposed to account for the habitat variation in vernal pool ecosystems on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar

Evolutionary divergence between two closely related species: Drosophila madeirensis and D. subobscura : quantitative genetic differentiation, reproductive barriers and evolutionary potential

Tese de doutoramento em Biologia (Biologia Evolutiva), apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2008Speciation and species differentiation are very important issues in Evolutionary Biology. This thesis focuses several aspects related with the differentiation between two closely related species, Drosophila madeirensis and Drosophila subosbcura, namely the contribution of additive and non-additive genetic effects to that differentiation, the contribution of assortative mating to their reproductive isolation, the analysis of hybrid developmental problems expressed as higher fluctuating asymmetry and their underlying causes (developmental noise), and the implications of species differentiation in terms of adaptation to a novel, common environment. The results indicate that negative dominance and epistasis are both involved in the genetic differentiation between these species. Both species present assortative mating, conspecific matings being more likely. Furthermore, the two reciprocal cross directions apparently present different reproductive barriers. In the cross involving D. madeirensis females the barrier is mostly prezygotic, with mating being hard to observe, however, this cross direction yields a high number of hybrids with an even sex-ratio. On the other hand, mating in the reciprocal cross is easy to observe but produces fewer hybrids with a male-biased sex ratio. The analysis comparing fluctuating asymmetry levels between hybrids and parental species indicates that, although hybridization disrupts developmental buffering, hybrid females presenting higher asymmetry, this disruption does not reflect higher developmental noise, as fluctuating asymmetry levels are similar to parental species. The results comparing species differences in life history traits and evolutionary dynamics indicate that these closely related species differ in the adaptation to new conditions (captivity). These findings have important implications for several fields, namely Evolutionary Biology, Speciation, Development and Conservation, which are discussed at the end of this thesis.FCT (PhD Fellowship: PRAXIS XXI/BD/21479/99

Corporate governance and corporate tax management: a bibliometric study

The main objective of this work is to analyze, through a bibliometric study, the evolution and dynamics of scientific production on the relationship between corporate governance and tax management. We base our analysis on 322 articles from Scopus and ISI Web of Science published between 1998 and 2021. The difficulty of accessing confidential information means that most studies focus on tax planning and tax avoidance rather than tax evasion practices. Thus, tax avoidance is the most used expression to refer to tax management and, excluding the general expression corporate governance, the most used corporate governance mechanisms in the keywords are CEO, ownership structure, and board. However, political connections and gender are two expressions that have attracted more interest from researchers in the last three years. Most studies and the most influential are by authors affiliated in the USA, China, and Australia, and more research still needs to be carried out on samples of European companies. In addition, most studies use metrics to quantify tax management applied to the reality of US companies with a tax system different from the European one. This study contributes to the knowledge about the most studied tax management practices and the most related governance mechanisms, allowing the identification of clues for future research.publishe

Um grafito romano na Quinta da Fórnea (Belmonte) (Conventus Emeritensis)

«Ficheiro Epigráfico» é o suplemento da revista Conimbriga, criado em 1982, destinado a dar a conhecer as inscrições romanas inéditas da Península Ibérica. Como o próprio nome indica, de cada epígrafe é fornecida uma ficha identificativa.Estuda-se o grafito feito num fragmento de granito procedente de uma villa romana da Lusitânia. Lê-se Rufi, 'de Rufo', o que poderá ser um indicativo de posse