Neurocognitive profile and cognitive intervention in Alzheimer's disease

Tese de Doutoramento em Psicologia (Especialidade de Psicologia Clínica)

Searching for therapeutic strategies in a mouse modelo of Machado-Joseph disease: targeting proteostases

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde

Development of a novel aptamer-based multi-sensor device for the detection of osteopontin

Doctoral Dissertation for PhD degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering

Gender, sex and sexuality in two open access communication journals published in Portugal: a critical overview of current discursive practices

The links between gender, sex and sexuality and their relevance are theoretically and politically problematic (Richardson, 2007). One of the difficulties in understanding their interconnections is that these terms are often used differently and ambiguously by different authors (and even by the same authors). This article reports the results of an analysis of the articles published in open access communication journals with known impact factor, edited in Portugal and published between 2005 and 2012. The diverse conceptualisations of those three basic concepts and of their (inter)relationships within communication research are identified. The complexity and the intricate (and often implicit) nature of both the meanings of these categories and their relationships underlie and justify our attention and further research. What the findings suggest about the current communication research into gender issues published in the two journals surveyed is that the ‘Gender differences discourse’ (Sunderland, 2004) is the most pervasive discourse (also) in academic practice. Additionally, they show that gender and sex are mainly taken for a fact, not a question that is worth being studied. The editors of these journals, as well as the scholars submitting manuscripts, need to be more aware of the traditional nature of the theoretical and methodological choices that they make regarding gender- and sex-related issues, as well as of the relative lack of attention to sexuality as a research subject.

Media(ted) discourse and society: rethinking the framework of critical discourse analysis

The analysis of journalistic discourse and its social embeddedness has known significant advances in the last two decades, especially due to the emergence and development of Critical Discourse Analysis. However, three important aspects remain under-researched: the time plane in discourse analysis, the discursive strategies of social actors, and the extra- and supra-textual effects of mediated discourse. Firstly, understanding the biography of public matters requires a longitudinal examination of mediated texts and their social contexts but most forms of analysis of journalistic discourse do not account for the time sequence of texts and its implications. Secondly, as the media representation of social issues is, to a large extent, a function of the discursive construction of events, problems and positions by social actors, the discursive strategies that they employ in a variety of arenas and channels ‘‘before’’ and ‘‘after’’ journalistic texts need to be examined. Thirdly, the fact that many of the modes of operation of discourse are extra- or supra-textual calls for a consideration of various social processes ‘‘outside’’ the text. This paper aims to produce a theoretical and methodological contribution to the integration of these issues in discourse analysis by proposing a framework that combines a textual dimension with a contextual one

Pre-clinical trials for Machado-Joseph Disease: Hypothesis-based and hypothesis-free therapeutic approaches

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde

O uso de Charges como instrumento para identificação de concepções individuais e representações sociais sobre a Dengue

A dengue é hoje uma das doenças com maior incidência no Brasil, com especial frequência no município de Fênix –Paraná. No presente estudo pretendeu-se analisar as concepções que as crianças têm sobre a dengue, identificando os componentes do modelo KVP, bem como conhecer as representações sociais deste grupo. Para o efeito optou-se pela utilização de charges com alunos do 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola localizada no município de Fênix, cujos textos foram analisados para identificação de categorias e dos componentes do modelo KVP (conhecimentos, valores e práticas) a elas associadas. Foram identificadas quatro categorias de respostas sobre a interpretação da charge relativa à dengue: (i) prevenção da dengue, (ii) perigoso que pode levar à morte, (iii) problema de saúde pública e (iv) combater a dengue. Verificou-se que a “prevenção da dengue” foi a categoria em que se identificaram os três domínios K, V e P implicados na construção das concepções, enquanto as duas categorias “perigoso que pode levar à morte” e “problema de saúde pública” apresentaram apenas os domínios K e V, e a categoria “combater a dengue” apenas evidenciou o domínio V. Os resultados do estudo mostraram que os alunos já veem a dengue como um problema com consequências sérias e que todos têm sua responsabilidade no controle da doença. Percebe-se, portanto, que todo o trabalho que vem sendo realizado pela secretaria de saúde, pelas escolas ou campanhas publicitárias esta surtindo efeito, uma vez que no ano de 2014 houve uma redução do número de casos no município foco da pesquisa.