Caracterização da abordagem familiar em crianças vitimas de maus tratos incluídas nos projectos de intervenção precoce

Nas últimas décadas a Intervenção Precoce tem demonstrado a sua utilidade no trabalho com as crianças e as suas famílias. Sendo consensual a sua importância, importa, também, que seja objecto de reflexão e investigação. O distrito de Évora é pioneiro na implementação de estratégias na área da Intervenção Precoce, desde o final da década de 80, apresentando, uma vasta experiência organizacional. Por isso entendemos ser o local ideal para a execução deste estudo, com o qual pretendemos conhecer e caracterizar os vários intervenientes nas práticas da Intervenção Precoce e, fundamentalmente, as abordagens que são realizadas às famílias em que ocorrem maus tratos infantis. O desenho metodológico utilizado assenta num estudo descritivo utilizando métodos quantitativos e qualitativos. Para a recolha de dados foi utilizado o questionário auto-preenchido, com questões abertas e fechadas, fazendo-se posteriormente o tratamento estatístico dos dados e a análise de conteúdo das respostas. A população deste estudo foi formada pelos técnicos de todas as equipas de Intervenção Precoce do distrito de Évora. Nunca perdendo de vista a perspectiva ecológica/sistémica, a realização deste estudo proporciona-nos uma visão dos diversos contextos ambientais e sistémicos existentes nas abordagens realizadas às famílias, evidenciando a importância e a adequação de estratégias que promovam a competência das famílias. ABSTRACT; ln the last decades Early Intervention has demonstrated its usefulness towards the children and their families. Therefore further ponderation and investigation on the subject is most important. The Évora district pioneers the implementation of Early Intervention strategies, since the late 80’s and hence, vast organization experience. This makes it the ideal location to implement this study, which aims to learn and characterize the participants in the Early Intervention, and also the approaches directed at the families where child abuse occurs. The methodical design of this study is descriptive, and both quantitative and qualitative in method. The data was collected by a self-completed questionnaire, composed of open and closed questions, and then subjected to statistic and content analysis. The study population was composed by the technicians of all the teams in the Early Intervention program, of the Évora district. While not neglecting the ecological/systemic perspective, of this study, it allowed us an overall outlook of the various environmental and systemic contexts, that exist regarding the families and thus their importance in promoting the family competences was underlined.

Vivências do nascimento: Subjectividades da relação pessoa/espaço ambiental. Um estudo exploratório

A realização desta pesquisa visa, essencialmente, explorar a interacção que as pessoas desenvolvem com os espaços físicos e sociais, ou seja, com o espaço ambiental. Assim, e a partir do ponto de vista da Psicologia Ambiental enquanto disciplina que integra o quadro conceptual da Ecologia Humana, procurámos conhecer a simbologia da vivência do espaço ambiental num serviço de obstetrícia, no contexto do parto, tendo definido como objectivo para a nossa investigação: "Descrever as vivências de parturientes, no decurso do nascimento de seus filhos, em particular no que concerne à interacção da pessoa com o ambiente físico e social". O enquadramento do tema foi traçado a partir de abordagens da Psicologia Ambiental que procuram investigar a interacção entre a pessoa e o ambiente físico e social. Depositámos o nosso interesse na concepção teórica de Roger Barker e partimos para o conhecimento da referida interacção num cenário comportamental, que neste estudo é a sala de partos. Recolhemos a opinião de 12 mulheres, que se disponibilizaram para participar, através de uma entrevista parcialmente estruturada. Os discursos recolhidos foram analisados com vista à construção de categorias que nos permitissem conhecer a experiência das parturientes enquanto utilizadoras temporárias de um espaço institucional com características particulares como é uma sala de partos. A análise dos discursos das participantes acerca da experiência do nascimento dos seus filhos deixou patente a interacção com o espaço ambiental permitindo recolher alguma informação interessante proveniente da sua influência na vivência do nascimento. No final, o que emana do estudo realizado é a convicção de que as relações interpessoais ocupam um papel destacado no panorama de um cenário comportamental, o que nos remete para a importância da promoção duma conduta profissional mais esclarecida e humanizante. Foi também esse o objectivo com que procurámo explorar o fenómeno e deixar algumas pistas nesta área ainda pouco investigada. ABSTRACT; This research looks, essentially, to acknowledge people interaction in a given physical setting, from Human Ecology's point of view. Thus, and from the point of view of environmental psychology as a discipline that integrates the conceptual framework of Human Ecology, we became interested in understanding the environmental space experience symbology in the birth context, in an obstetrics service. We were interested to know the experience of women as protagonists in the birth of their children, and the interaction they developed with the environment during hospitalization in the delivery room. Thus, we define as an objective: "Describe the experiences of the parturients, during the birth of their children, particularly in what concerns to the interaction between person and physical and social environment". The framework of the theme was drawn from environmental psychology approaches that seek to investigate the interaction between the person and the physical and social environment. We have our interest in the theoretical design of Roger Barker and left for the knowledge of that interaction in a behavioral scenario, which, in this study, is the delivery room. We collected the views of 12 informants who agreed to participate, through a partially structured interview. The results analysis was obtained through the dismantling of speech and significance links assignment. Understanding the experience was achieved through the analysis of the categories identified retrospectively, according to the subject that originated the approach. The survey, as we designed it, revealed us, in the context of the environmental space interaction, woman's point of view, as a temporarily user of an institutional space with special characteristics. ln the end, what comes from this study is the belief that interpersonal relationships play a prominent role in the panorama of a behavioral scenario, conducting us to the importance of promoting a more informed and humanizing professional conduct. This was also our objective as we tried to explore the phenomenon, leaving some clues in this area still poorly investigated.

Changes in trophic ecology of fish assemblages after no take Marine Protected Area designation in the southwestern coast of Portugal.

Changes in fish assemblage structure caused by human activities, such as fishing, can alter trophic relations in fish assemblages. In this context, Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are efficient tools for habitat recovery and ideal environments for evaluating changes on the trophic structure resulting from human activities. The present work targeted fish assemblages from two no-take MPAs from the northern half of South Alentejo and Costa Vicentina Marine Park, established in 2011. Previous works reported positive effects on local fish assemblages after no-take MPA designation, and it is therefore important to further study its impact on local fish assemblages, especially concerning trophic interactions. Local fish assemblages were sampled (summer 2011, winter 2012, summer 2013 and winter 2013) using trammel nets. Diets were characterized and digestive tract contents of the 10 most abundant fish species were compared between the no take MPAs (treatment) and adjacent areas (controls), and changes evaluated as a function of time since protection. Results revealed significant differences between the diets of fish from protected and non protected areas, with crabs being the preferential prey in both protected and control areas but being more ingested outside the no-take areas. However, these differences were evident since the beginning of the study. Fish assemblages from the northern area presented significantly larger niche breadth and significantly increasing with time. This way, the main effects of no-take MPA implementation were directly visible on the niche breadth but did not directly impact the diet composition of the sampled fish assemblages, contributing however to reinforce the already naturally existent differences. This work provides important information regarding the effect of changes in the fish assemblage caused by MPA designation on the trophic ecology of fish.

The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii in Europe: Impacts on aquatic ecosystems and human well-being

Procambarus clarkii is currently recorded from 16 European territories. On top of being a vector of crayfish plague, which is responsible for large-scale disappearance of native crayfish species, it causes severe impacts on diverse aquatic ecosystems, due to its rapid life cycle, dispersal capacities, burrowing activities and high population densities. The species has even been recently discovered in caves. This invasive crayfish is a polytrophic keystone species that can exert multiple pressures on ecosystems. Most studies deal with the decline of macrophytes and predation on several species (amphibians, molluscs, and macroinvertebrates), highlighting how this biodiversity loss leads to unbalanced food chains. At a management level, the species is considered as (a) a devastating digger of the water drainage systems in southern and central Europe, (b) an agricultural pest in Mediterranean territories, consuming, for example, young rice plants, and (c) a threat to the restoration of water bodies in north-western Europe. Indeed, among the high-risk species, P. clarkii consistently attained the highest risk rating. Its negative impacts on ecosystem services were evaluated. These may include the loss of provisioning services such as reductions in valued edible native species of regulatory and supporting services, inducing wide changes in ecological communities and increased costs to agriculture and water management. Finally, cultural services may be lost. The species fulfils the criteria of the Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European Parliament (species widely spread in Europe and impossible to eradicate in a cost-effective manner) and has been included in the “Union List”. Particularly, awareness of the ornamental trade through the internet must be reinforced within the European Community and import and trade regulations should be imposed to reduce the availability of this high-risk species.