Environmental mycology in public health: fungi and mycotoxins risk assessment and management

Fungi are essential to the survival of our global ecology, but they might pose a significant threat to the health of occupants when they grow in our buildings. The exposure to fungi in homes is a significant risk factor for a number of respiratory symptoms. Well-known illnesses caused by fungi include allergy and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Environmental monitoring for fungi and their disease agents are important aspects of exposure assessment, but few guidelines exist for interpreting their health impacts. This book answers the questions: How does one detect and measure the presence of indoor fungi? What is an acceptable level of indoor fungi? How do we relate this information to human health problems?

Conceptual, methodological and ethical issues in children's research in Portugal

Methodological issues in research with children have sparked a growing interest by the Sociology of Childhood since the last decades. In Portugal, this interest is more recent, but it has had a significant increase. Considering several researches, namely master thesis, supervised by the authors on the framework of Sociology of Childhood, this proposal intends to characterize some methodological complexities in research with children in Portugal, when we consider their voice and agency in the knowledge producing about them. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the methodological discussion on research with children through the identification of a set of challenges related to: (i) the diversity of methodologies uses in children’s research, (ii) ethical concerns and (iii) the role of the researcher.

Public relations, satisfaction and commitment

The importance of the organizational relationship (senior managers) with an internal public (employees) is the main focus of this research, aiming to understand how this relationship differs between the different publics. Nowadays, the relevance attributed by Public Relations to this relationship is crucial. The main purpose is to identify two consistent models to measure the impact of an organizational relationship on the internal public. The second purpose is to identify how the internal public react to this organizational relationship, namely by gender. The research was conducted in nine Portuguese companies with a sample of 1.244 subjects in order to study the context of the relationship and validate the identified models. The results show the gender stereotypes in the relationship in these companies and that the organizational relationship has an impact on organizational commitment with a consistent model that highlights the impact of Public Relations on a company's productivity.

Public relations, satisfaction and commitment

The importance of the relationship with an internal public is the main focus of our research. Nowadays, the relevance attributed by Public Relations to this relationship is crucial. Our purpose is to identify two consistent models to measure the impact of an organizational relationship on its internal public. The research was conducted in nine Portuguese companies with a sample of 1244 subjects in order to study the context of the relationship and validate the identified models. The results show us the gender stereotypes in the relationship in these companies and that it is possible to identify the impact of Public Relations on a company's productivity.