Qualidade nos serviços turísticos náuticos no Alto Douro Vinhateiro: perspetiva dos clientes internos (colaboradores)

No contexto atual, marcado pela crise económica e financeira, as organizações dos serviços turísticos procuram aliar o conceito de qualidade com os seus serviços, de modo a satisfazer os clientes internos (colaboradores) e os clientes externos (turistas) e a garantir a prestação de um serviço personalizado e de excelência. O objetivo da presente dissertação consiste em proporcionar uma visão geral da qualidade dos serviços turísticos náuticos efetuados na região do Alto Douro Vinhateiro (ADV), junto dos clientes internos (colaboradores). Para o efeito, foi aplicado um inquérito a 117 colaboradores de diversas organizações dos serviços turísticos náuticos da região do ADV e realizada uma pesquisa exploratória e descritiva. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que existem aspetos a serem melhorados nas organizações (preocupação com os colaboradores; formação especifica; condições de trabalho; maior dialogo entre chefias e colaboradores; atribuição de carga horária e de folgas) para que os colaboradores se sintam satisfeitos. Por outro lado, verificou-se que as perceções sobre a qualidade nos serviços turísticos náuticos são iguais em ambos os géneros; Abstract: Quality in Nautical Touristic Services in Alto Douro Vinhateiro – The Internal Clients (Collaborators) Perspective In the actual context marked by the economic and financial crisis, the organizations of touristic services are looking to ally the concept of services with their services, in order to satisfy internal customers (collaborators) and external costumers (tourists) and to guarantee the installment of an excellent and personalized service. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of the quality of nautical tourism services made in the region of Alto Douro Vinhateiro, with internal clients (employees). For this purpose it applied a survey of 117 employees from various organizations of nautical tourism services of the ADV region and conducted an exploratory and descriptive research. The results show that there are areas to be improved in organizations (preoccupation with employees; specific training,; working conditions; greater dialogue between managers and employees; allocation of hours and days off) so that employees can feel satisfied- Moreover it was found that the perceptions of the quality of nautical tourism services are equal in both sexes.

“Biomarkers in a One Health perspective: current knowledge of their ability to merge human and animal health

Biomarkers are nowadays essential tools to be one step ahead for fighting disease, enabling an enhanced focus on disease prevention and on the probability of its occurrence. Research in a multidisciplinary approach has been an important step towards the repeated discovery of new biomarkers. Biomarkers are defined as biochemical measurable indicators of the presence of disease or as indicators for monitoring disease progression. Currently, biomarkers have been used in several domains such as oncology, neurology, cardiovascular, inflammatory and respiratory disease, and several endocrinopathies. Bridging biomarkers in a One Health perspective has been proven useful in almost all of these domains. In oncology, humans and animals are found to be subject to the same environmental and genetic predisposing factors: examples include the existence of mutations in BR-CA1 gene predisposing to breast cancer, both in human and dogs, with increased prevalence in certain dog breeds and human ethnic groups. Also, breast feeding frequency and duration has been related to a decreased risk of breast cancer in women and bitches. When it comes to infectious diseases, this parallelism is prone to be even more important, for as much as 75% of all emerging diseases are believed to be zoonotic. Examples of successful use of biomarkers have been found in several zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, dengue, leptospirosis or West Nile virus infections. Acute Phase Proteins (APPs) have been used for quite some time as biomarkers of inflammatory conditions. These have been used in human health but also in the veterinary field such as in mastitis evaluation and PRRS (porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome) diagnosis. Advantages rely on the fact that these biomarkers can be much easier to assess than other conventional disease diagnostic approaches (example: measured in easy to collect saliva samples). Another domain in which biomarkers have been essential is food safety: the possibility to measure exposure to chemical contaminants or other biohazards present in the food chain, which are sometimes analytical challenges due to their low bioavailability in body fluids, is nowadays a major breakthrough. Finally, biomarkers are considered the key to provide more personalized therapies, with more efficient outcomes and fewer side effects. This approach is expected to be the correct path to follow also in veterinary medicine, in the near future.