Quality indicators in the education of children with profound Intellectual and multiple disabilities

Todas as crianças, independentemente das suas necessidades, deveriam ter acesso a uma educação de qualidade e a serem incluídas nas suas famílias e comunidades. Esta afirmação inclui as crianças mais vulneráveis, em particular as crianças com dificuldades intelectuais e multideficiência. Os resultados da investigação sobre a educação de crianças com dificuldades intelectuais e multideficiência ainda não produziram até ao momento informação suficiente que possa ser usada para desenvolver indicadores de qualidade para a avaliação das práticas e dos serviços. A investigação nesta área é limitada por constrangimentos éticos, dificuldades na determinação de amostras e desafios metodológicos, sendo reduzido o número de estudos capaz de produzir a informação necessária. Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir fatores que contribuam para a qualidade do envolvimento de crianças com dificuldades intelectuais e multideficiência em atividades educativas, com base na experiência das autoras e na informação disponível que tem sido publicada sobre este assunto. Com base nesta discussão é sugerido um conjunto de indicadores que poderão ajudar os profissionais a dirigir as suas observações para a qualidade da oferta educativa e para aspetos significativos dos desempenhos das crianças quando envolvidas em atividades curriculares.

Phylogeny and phenotypic characterization of pathogenic cryptococcus species and closely related saprobic taxa in the tremellales

Eukaryotic Cell, Vol.8, Nº3

Business micro-location: factors, preferences and indicators to assess the influence factors

The paper presents a study on business micro-location behaviour as well as corresponding factors of influence, conducted in two metropolitan areas, Bucharest-Ilfov (Romania) and Greater Porto (Portugal). By business micro-location we refer to a specific site such as a building or facility, accommodating a business within a small, compact geographical area (e.g. metropolitan area). At this geographical scale, the macroeconomic layer factors were excluded, applicable when discern between regions or countries. The factors derived from location theory and previous empirical studies were surveyed, completing a cross-sectional analysis in order to find out the specific weights of the location factors and preferences, by region and by industry. Based on already established firms’ feedback on location, the specific weights were granted by each industry to the main location factors, types of areas, and types of accommodation facilities. The authors also suggested a model to integrate these results into a Geographical Information System (GIS).

Acqusition and data analysis of the eco-efficiency for the establishment of indicators parameters for industrial environmental sustainability

The industrial activity is inevitably associated with a certain degradation of the environmental quality, because is not possible to guarantee that a manufacturing process can be totally innocuous. The eco-efficiency concept is globally accepted as a philosophy of entreprise management, that encourages the companies to become more competitive, innovative and environmentally responsible by promoting the link between its companies objectives for excellence and its objectives of environmental excellence issues. This link imposes the creation of an organizational methodology where the performance of the company is concordant with the sustainable development. The main propose of this project is to apply the concept of eco-efficiency to the particular case of the metallurgical and metal workshop industries through the development of the particular indicators needed and to produce a manual of procedures for implementation of the accurate solution.

The need of performance indicators for collaborative business ecosystems

During last decades there has been a trend to build collaboration platforms as enablers for groups of enterprises to jointly provide integrated services and products. As a result, the notion of business ecosystem is getting wider acceptance. However, a critical issue that is still open, despite some efforts in this area, is the identification of adequate performance indicators to measure and motivate sustainable collaboration. This work-in-progress addresses this concern, briefly presenting the state of the art of relevant contributing areas such as, collaborative networks, business ecosystems, enterprise performance indicators, social networks analysis, and supply chains. Complementarily, through an assessment of current gaps, the research challenges are identified and an approach for further development is proposed.

Isoenzyme profile as parameter to differentiate pathogenic strains of Entamoeba histolytica in Brazil

The isoenzyme profiles (IP) of 33 strains of Entamoeba histolytica isolated from patients and carriers of two regions in Brazil (Amazonia and Southeast) were determined. The enzymes phosphoglucomutase, glucose-phosphate isomerase, hexokinase and malic enzyme were considered. IP of the strains was correlated with culture conditions, time of maintenance in laboratory and clinical history of patients. The strains were maintained under polyxenic, monoxenic and axenic culture conditions: 27 polyxenic, 1 polyxenic and monoxenic, 1 polyxenic, monoxenic and axenic and 4 axenic only. The patients were symptomatic and asymptomatic. The symptomatic patients presented either non dysenteric (NDC) or dysenteric colitis (DC), associated or not with hepatic abscess (HA). One patient presented anal amoeboma (AM). The analysis of IP for isolates maintained in polyxenic culture showed non pathogenic IP (I) for strains from carriers and patients with NDC, while the strains isolated from patients presenting DC, HA and AM resulted in isolates II or XIX pathogenic IP. This parameter was not able to differentiate strains from carriers from symptomatic patients when these strains were found in axenic or monoxenic culture. All these strains displayed pathogenic IP (II), demonstrating the inability of this parameter to classifying for virulence since it showed identical IP for strains isolated from carriers or symptomatic patients.

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: The case of the defence sector

Journal of Environmental Management, nº 82 p. 410–432

Differentiation of pathogenic and non-pathogenic leptospires by means of the polymerase chain reaction

A polymerase chain reaction was carried out to detect pathogenic leptospires isolated from animals and humans in Argentina. A double set of primers (G1/G2, B64-I/B64-II), described before, were used to amplify by PCR a DNA fragment from serogroups belonging to Leptospira interrogans but did not allow to detect saprophytic strains isolated from soil and water (L. biflexa). This fact represents an advantage since it makes possible the differentiation of pathogenic from non-pathogenic leptospires in cultures. The sensitivity of this assay has been determined, allowing to detect just only 10 leptospires in the reaction tube. Those sets of primers generated either a 285 bp or 360 bp fragment, depending on the pathogenic strain

Massive shift in the pneumococcal nasopharyngeal flora after the 7-valent conjugate vaccine: epidemiological studies and testing pathogenic potential in animal models

Dissertation presented to obtain the PhD degree in Biology/Molecular Biology by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica

Is Demodex really non-pathogenic?

Although usually considered a non-pathogenic parasite in parasitological textbooks, Demodex folliculorum has been implicated as a causative agent for some dermatological conditions, such as rosacea-like eruptions and some types of blepharitis. Several anecdotal reports have demonstrated unequivocal tissue damage directly related to the presence of the parasite. However, this seems to be exceedingly rare, in contrast with the marked prevalence of this infestation. We have had the opportunity to observe one of such cases. A 38-year-old woman presented with rosacea-like papular lesions in her right cheek. Histopathological examination revealed granulomatous dermal inflammation with a well-preserved mite phagocytized by a multinucleated giant cell. This finding may be taken as an evidence for the pathogenicity of the parasite, inasmuch as it does not explain how such a common parasite is able to produce such a rare disease.

How composite indicators of innovation can influence technology policy decision?

Based on the report for Project III of the PhD programme on Technology Assessment and prepared for the Winter School that took place at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica Campus on the 6th and 7th of December 2010.

Juvenile Parkinson disease caused by parkin mutations: large deletions and pathogenic mechanisms

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Genética Molecular e Biomedicina