Lideranças curriculares intermédias no contexto da avaliação externa das escolas em Portugal

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Educação (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento Curricular).

Enzymatic phosphorylation of hair keratin enhances fast adsorption of cationic moieties

The current study describes the in vitro phosphorylation of a human hair keratin, using protein kinase for the first time. Phosphorylation of keratin was demonstrated by 31P NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) techniques. Phosphorylation induced a 2.5 fold increase of adsorption capacity in the first 10 minutes for cationic moiety like Methylene Blue (MB). Thorough description of MB adsorption process was performed by several isothermal models. Reconstructed fluorescent microscopy images depict distinct amounts of dye bound to the differently treated hair. The results of this work suggest that the enzymatic phosphorylation of keratins might have significant implications in hair shampooing and conditioning, where short application times of cationic components are of prime importance.

Nicolas Sanson and his Map: The Course of the Amazon River

One of the first scientific maps of the Amazon region, The Course of the Amazon River (Le Cours de La Rivière des Amazones), was constructed by Nicolas Sanson, a French cartographer of the seventeenth century, and served as the prototype for many others. The evaluation of this chart, until now, has been that it is a very defective map, a sketch based on a historical account, according to the opinion of La Condamine. Thus, the aim of the present work was to prove that the map of the Amazon River traced by Nicolas Sanson is a scientific work, a map that presents precise geographic coordinates considering its time, shows a well-determined prime meridian, and also employs a creative methodology to deduce longitudes from latitudes and distances that had been covered. To show such characteristics, an analysis of the accuracy of the map was made by comparing its latitudes and longitudes with those of a current map. We determined the prime meridian of this map and analyzed the methodology used for the calculation of longitudes. The conclusion is that it is actually a good map for the time, particularly considering the technology and the limited information that Sanson had at his disposal. This proves that the negative assertion of La Condamine is unfounded.

Mulheres (in)visíveis: que "género" de comentadores no horário nobre da televisão?

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Informação e Jornalismo)

Hazard assessment of storm events for the battery, New York

The environmental and socio-economic importance of coastal areas is widely recognized, but at present these areas face severe weaknesses and high-risk situations. The increased demand and growing human occupation of coastal zones have greatly contributed to exacerbating such weaknesses. Today, throughout the world, in all countries with coastal regions, episodes of waves overtopping and coastal flooding are frequent. These episodes are usually responsible for property losses and often put human lives at risk. The floods are caused by coastal storms primarily due to the action of very strong winds. The propagation of these storms towards the coast induces high water levels. It is expected that climate change phenomena will contribute to the intensification of coastal storms. In this context, an estimation of coastal flooding hazards is of paramount importance for the planning and management of coastal zones. Consequently, carrying out a series of storm scenarios and analyzing their impacts through numerical modeling is of prime interest to coastal decision-makers. Firstly, throughout this work, historical storm tracks and intensities are characterized for the northeastern region of United States coast, in terms of probability of occurrence. Secondly, several storm events with high potential of occurrence are generated using a specific tool of DelftDashboard interface for Delft3D software. Hydrodynamic models are then used to generate ensemble simulations to assess storms' effects on coastal water levels. For the United States’ northeastern coast, a highly refined regional domain is considered surrounding the area of The Battery, New York, situated in New York Harbor. Based on statistical data of numerical modeling results, a review of the impact of coastal storms to different locations within the study area is performed.

Compositional analysis of biofilms formed by Staphylococcus aureus isolated from food sources

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb. 2016.00390

Do kemalismo ao neo-otomanismo: o desenvolvimento político e a «Nova Turquia» de Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2003-2014)

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciência Política

A tradução de negócios e projetos on-line na empresa Bloomidea

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Tradução e Comunicação Multilingue

Modelos de gestão pública e as opções de reforma do XIX governo constitucional: análise do discurso

Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão e Políticas Públicas

Depressão e síndromes isquêmicas miocárdicas instáveis: diferenças entre homens e mulheres

OBJETIVO: Investigar, em portadores de Síndromes Isquêmicas Miocárdicas Instáveis (SIMI) estratificados por sexo, se características sociodemográficas, diagnóstico clínico, tabagismo, consumo de álcool e ansiedade estão associados com depressão. MÉTODOS: Foram entrevistados 345 pacientes consecutivos com SIMI (206 com infarto agudo do miocárdio e 139 com angina instável). As entrevistas incluíram questões sobre características sociodemográficas, tabagismo, avaliação de depressão (Prime MD e BDI), de ansiedade traço e ansiedade estado (IDATE), e de consumo de álcool (AUDIT). RESULTADOS: O diagnóstico de depressão se correlacionou, significativamente, com sexo feminino, idade inferior a 50 anos e escores médios mais elevados de ansiedade traço e ansiedade estado. Os homens (245) com depressão eram freqüentemente mais jovens que 50 anos, fumantes, e apresentavam escore médio de ansiedade traço e ansiedade estado mais elevado que os não deprimidos. A análise multivariada aponta que, no sexo masculino, idade está negativamente associada (OR 0,9519, 95% IC 0,9261 - 0,9784) e escores mais altos de ansiedade traço estão positivamente associados (OR 1,0691 95% IC 1,0375 - 1,1017) com depressão. Na amostra feminina (100), mulheres com depressão diferenciam-se das sem depressão por apresentarem escore médio mais alto de ansiedade traço e de ansiedade estado. Na análise multivariada da amostra feminina, escore mais alto de ansiedade traço associou-se de forma independente à depressão (OR 1,1267 95% IC 1,0632-1,1940). CONCLUSÃO: Conclui-se que, em pacientes hospitalizados com SIMI, as mulheres, os homens com menos de 50 anos e os ansiosos têm mais chance de apresentarem depressão.

In search of a language textile and text in contemporary women's art

This research uses the textile/text axis concept as a conceptual tool to investigate the role of textile and text in contemporary women’s art practice and theorizing, investigating textile as a largely hitherto unacknowledged element in women’s art practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Textile and text share a common etymological root, from the Latin textere to weave, textus a fabric. The thesis illuminates the pathways whereby textile and text played an important role in women reclaiming a speaking voice as creators of culture and signification during a revolutionary period of renewal in women’s cultural contribution and positioning. The methodological approach used in the research consisted of a comprehensive literature review, the compilation of an inventory of relevant women artists, developing a classificatory system differentiating types of approaches, concerns and concepts underpinning women’s art practice vis a vis the textile/text axis and a series of three in-depth case studies of artists Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Faith Ringgold. The thesis points to the fact that contemporary women artists and theorists have rounded their art practice and aesthetic discourse in textile as prime visual metaphor and signifier, turning towards the ancient language of textile not merely to reclaim a speaking voice but to occupy a ground breaking locus of signification and representation in contemporary culture. The textile/text axis facilitated women artists in powerfully countering a culturally inscribed status of Lacanian ‘no-woman’ (a position of abjection, absence and lack in the phallocentric symbolic). Turning towards a language of aeons, textile as fertile wellspring, the thesis identifies the methodologies and strategies whereby women artists have inserted their webs of subjectivities and deepest concerns into the records and discourses of contemporary culture. Presenting an anatomy of the textile/text axis, the thesis identifies nine component elements manifesting in contemporary women’s aesthetic practice and discourse. In this cultural renaissance, the textile/text axis, the thesis suggests, served as a complex lexicon, a system of labyrinthine references and signification, a site of layered meanings and ambiguities, a body proxy and a corporeal cartography, facilitating a revolution in women’s aesthetic praxis.

Depression as a Clinical Determinant of Dependence and Low Quality of Life in Elderly Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Background:The aging process promotes a progressive increase in chronic-degenerative diseases. The effect of these diseases on the functional capacity has been well recognized. Another health parameter concerns “quality of life related to health”. Among the elderly population, cardiovascular diseases stand out due to the epidemiological and clinical impact. Usually, these diseases have been associated with others. This set of problems may compromise both independence and quality of life in elderly patients who seek cardiologic treatment. These health parameters have not been well contemplated by cardiologists.Objective:Evaluating, among the elderly population with cardiovascular disease, which are the most relevant clinical determinants regarding dependence and quality of life.Methods:This group was randomly and consecutively selected and four questionnaires were applied: HAQ, SF-36, PRIME-MD e Mini Mental State.Results:The study included 1,020 elderly patients, 63.3% women. The group had been between 60 and 97 years-old (mean: 75.56 ± 6.62 years-old). 61.4% were independent or mild dependence. The quality of life total score was high (HAQ: 88.66 ± 2.68). 87.8% of patients had a SF-36 total score > 66. In the multivariate analysis, the association between diagnoses and high degrees of dependence was significant only for previous stroke (p = 0.014), obesity (p < 0.001), lack of physical activity (p = 0.016), osteoarthritis (p < 0.001), cognitive impairment (p < 0.001), and major depression (p < 0.001). Analyzing the quality of life, major depression and physical illness for depression was significantly associated with all domains of the SF-36.Conclusion:Among an elderly outpatient cardiology population, dependence and quality of life clinical determinants are not cardiovascular comorbidities, especially the depression.

Conservação do bambu

This paper brings to light new data on the absence of influence of lunar phases on the preservation of bamboo sticks. The author cut down for one and a half years (from - June 18, 1947 to December 30,1948) bamboos in every phase of the moon. With part of the sticks obtained a fence was built; the rest v/as kept under shelter. In the fence there were: 5 whole sticks with no preservative, 5 whole sticks with thanalith, 5 halved sticks with no preservative, 5 halved sticks with thanalith, all buried 10 centimeters in the soil. An equal number of the same types and in the same fence were kept upright 10 centimeters above the soil. Under shelter, in a shed, there was another group of sticks, 10 of each of the same four types. After 5 1/2 years no damage was observed in the fence for any treatment or any phase of the moon. On the other hand, for those bamboos kept under shelter the following numbers of perforated sticks were observed. Number of perforated sticks after 5 1/2 years Without Thanalith Thanalith Date of cutting Phase of the moon Whole Halved Whole Halved 8 - 25 - 47 Prime 0 3 0 0 9 - 29 - 47 Full 0 3 0 0 10 - 7 - 47 Wane 0 3 0 0 10 - 14 - 47 New 2 4 0 0 10 - 29 - 47 Full 0 5 0 0 11 - 6 - 47 Wane 3 3 0 0 11 - 13 - 47 New 0 1 0 0 4 - 1 - 43 Wane 3 5 0 0 8 - 27 - 48 Wane 1 3 0 0 10 - 10 - 48 Prime 1 3 0 0 Totals 10 36 0 0 So, among the 400 sticks kept under shelter, after 5 1/2 years, only 46 were perforated, all among those withe no preservative. No influence of lunar phase at cutting down of sticks seems to be present.

Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation von McDonald’s im Internet

Das Thema Nachhaltigkeit ist schon seit geraumer Zeit in den gesellschaftlichen Fokus gerückt. Große Unternehmen sehen sich zunehmend dem Druck einer kritischen Öffentlichkeit ausgesetzt. Das betrifft besonders Unternehmen, die im ernährungswirtschaftlichen Bereich tätig sind. Fast Food gilt für viele als Inbegriff schlechter Ernährung und unethischer Verhaltensweisen. Vor diesem Hintergrund versuchen immer mehr Unternehmen, ihre Produkte und Produktionsprozesse sowie die Unternehmensführung selbst nachhaltig zu gestalten. Mit dem Instrument der Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation existiert ein Ansatz, diese Entwicklung transparent zu kommunizieren. Dabei nutzen immer mehr Firmen das Internet als Kommunikationskanal. Da die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation allerdings ein noch recht junges Feld der Unternehmenskommunikation darstellt, gibt es quantitativ wie qualitativ große Unterschiede. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht diese Arbeit die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation des führenden Fast-Food-Konzerns McDonald’s im Internet. Es wird sich zeigen, dass sich die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation in die Bereiche Produktverantwortung und Unternehmensverantwortung aufteilt. Beide Bereiche orientieren sich mit ihren Inhalten an gesellschaftlichen Ansprüchen. Die Produktverantwortung von McDonald‘s umfasst dabei sowohl persönliche als auch externe Effekte der Lebensmittelproduktion. Die Unternehmensverantwortung schließt die Verantwortung als Arbeitgeber, gesellschaftliches Engagement und Umweltschutz ein. Durch einen Vergleich mit einer Verbraucherstudie, die irreführende Kommunikationsstrategien der Lebensmittelindustrie aufzeigt, wird sich zeigen, dass die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation auf Produktebene Täuschungspotenziale aufweist. Zudem zeigt sich, dass die drei Nachhaltigkeitsdimensionen nicht integriert dargestellt werden.

Freshwater sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae) in a benthic filter feeding community at the Guanacaste Dry Forest, Costa Rica

The freshwater sponges Trochospongilla variabilis Bonetto & Ezcurra de Drago (1973), Radiospongilla crateriformis (Potts, 1882), Spongilla cenota Penney & Racek (1968) and Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera (Ezcurra de Drago, 1974) compose with the sphaerid bivalve Eupera cubensis (Prime, 1865) and several Phylactolaemata bryozoans a benthic filter feeding community living in seasonal lentic and lotic habitats with high Particulate Organic Carbon (POC), low conductivity and acid pH within the Costa Rica Dry Forest biome. The sponge specimens gathered led to the re-description of the four species.