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- Forest Resources Management and Sustainability: The Specific Case of European Union CountriesPublication . Martinho, Vítor; Ferreira, António José DinisForest land provides several environmental services and goods with significant implications for different socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. Forestry and its management are determinant activities for sustainable development, specifically in the current context of urgent mitigation of climate change. In this perspective, one objective of this research was to survey the main insights from the literature about the forest and management dimensions put together, highlighting the contributions of these activities to mitigate climate change. Another objective was to explore indicators related to forest management (land, employment, output, and net emissions) in order to obtain a forest sustainability index through factor analysis. As main insights from this study, we can quote that the literature survey pinpoints the most relevant factors framing forest management: soil characteristics, ecology, ecosystems, biodiversity, deforestation, climate change, socioeconomic frameworks, local knowledge, public policies, institutional context, and new technologies. Forest indicators reveal a strong relationship between forest land, employment and output, and a weaker relation with net emissions. We concluded that there is a need for stakeholders to explore and improve the interlinkage with climate change impact, specifically with regard to improving the relationships of forestry greenhouse gas emissions impacts with forest size and output.
- Chemical and Physical Properties of Some Hazelnut Varieties Grown in PortugalPublication . Ferrão, Ana Cristina; Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Lopes, Arminda; Rodrigues, Cláudia Filipa; Martins, Hugo; Gonçalves, Roberto; Correia, PaulaHazelnuts are one of the most appreciated nuts worldwide due to their unique organoleptic and nutritional characteristics. The present work intended to analyse several physical and chemical properties of different hazelnut varieties grown in Portugal, namely Tonda de Giffoni, Grada de Viseu, Segorbe, Longa de Espanha, Butler, Gunslebert, and Negreta. In general, the results revealed statistically significant differences between the varieties under study. The Gunslebert had more elongated hazelnuts and with heavier shelled fruits, while the kernels of the Grada de Viseu revealed to be heavier. Grada de Viseu was harder in the shell, Gunslebert had a harder core, and Segorbe was more resistant to fracture. Fat was the more representative component for all varieties and in some cases the values of moisture and water activity were over the recommended amount (≥0.62). Tonda de Giffoni was the variety with the highest induction time, indicating the highest oxidation stability. Moreover, discriminant analysis revealed that the variables more important to distinguish the varieties were protein (λ = 0.007) and water activity (λ = 0.010). The results of this study help to better understand the differences between some hazelnut varieties that are cultivated in Portugal, which gives important hints for all players in the hazelnut sector.
- Food behavior, social aspects, and nutritional status in romaniaPublication . Tarcea, M.; Matran, I. M.; Martin-Hadmas, R.; Fazakas, Z.; Guiné, Raquel P. F.Introduction. Health status is directly linked with nutritional status, life style and food behaviour. There are 4 Health Indicators: Health Conscience, Health Information Orientation, Health-Oriented Beliefs, and Healthy Activities. People who are health conscious have a positive attitude towards preventive measures such as healthy eating. Health information refers to the extent to which an individual is willing to seek health information. At the cognitive level, health orientation is manifested in the field of health beliefs, which refers to the specific cognitions held by individuals about health behaviors. Also, health-oriented individuals are more likely to engage in healthy activities than other people in the population. The four aspects of the health orientation mentioned suggest the differences between individuals in the context of their sources of information in the health field. Our aim was to evaluate connections between social characteristics, nutritional status data and food behaviour, in a Romanian population sample. Material and methods. We followed a qualitative cross-sectional study based on screening of 751 Romanian adults from different regions of our country, which was carried out in 2018. We used a validated questionnaire from an international project, based on 26 specific questions, filled in online, regarding their nutritional and social data completed by their attitudes and information towards food behaviour. In our group, 68.7% were women, one quarter had over 50 years old, 82.3% were from urban areas and almost 2/3rds were higly educated. Results. We obtained a positive correlation between demographic parameters and the BMI, also healthy food behaviors were more frequent at women versus man. On the opposite, the confidence of men upon the information about healthy eating from the internet was higher than that of women. The number of hours/day spent watching TV or in front of the computer was positively correlated with age and also with their BMI. A high education level was significantly positively associated with healthier choices regarding nutrition practices. Health status in relation with nutritional status showed us that the most concerned group for their diet was those who suffered from different pathologies especially cardiovascular disorders. We obtained no significant associations among BMI, environment, current professional activity, responsibility for eating, and physical activity. Conclusions. Nutritionists, specialists in medicine, and food stakeholders should promote healthy diets through adequate sources of information aimed at target groups. Multidisciplinary teams should develop a more efficient strategy to motivate people to make healthy eating choices and improve population food behavior.
- Retention in schoolPublication . Silva, Cláudia Ribeiro da; Veiga, Feliciano; Pinto, Élia Silva; Ferreira, IsabelIntroduction: In Portugal, the retention in school presents worrying figures. The indicator "Direct Paths to Success", created by the Ministry of Education, shows that the majority of students who did not finish secondary school in 2019 was because they failed a year or had a negative score in at least one of the national exams. Out of a universe of 456,368 students, only 201,937 (44%) had the so-called "direct success path". (Source: http://infoescolas.mec.pt/ 02/2019) Objetives: The main goal of this study is to inquire if the students who had been held back were the ones who showed at the beginning of the school year less emotional commitment in comparison with students that moved forward. Methods: The sample comprises 330 students from the 10th grade of a secondary school in Lisbon, and the data were collected using a scale proposed by Veiga (2013, 2014, 2016) – Student’s Engagement in School (EAE-E4D), at the end of the first school term. Results: Considerable differences emerged between the two groups in all the items of the affective dimension. The group retained had the worst results. Conclusion: The students’ affective engagement is crucial for academic success, and school should promote it through strategies that can provide their well-being and prevent retention.
- Liberdade e cidadania global: aprender a aprender com o livro-álbumPublication . Melão, Dulce; Silva, Ana IsabelEste artigo procura investigar o contributo do livro-álbum Obrigado a todos! (Martins, 2016) para o ensino dos valores, no âmbito do domínio dos direitos humanos – nomeadamente o respeito, o cuidado e a solidariedade. O referencial teórico deste artigo baseia-se: i) no Programa e metas curriculares de Português do ensino básico (Buescu, Morais, Rocha & Magalhães (2015); ii) no documento Educação para a cidadania global: tópicos e objetivos de aprendizagem (2016); iii) na Convenção sobre os direitos da criança e protocolos facultativos (2019). Traçam-se os seguintes objetivos: i) atentar nas formas de representação da aprendizagem plasmadas no livro-álbum, sobretudo nas ilustrações, e nas suas reverberações na formação pessoal das crianças; ii) refletir sobre os desdobramentos de tais aprendizagens em diálogo com os afetos que estão no seu fulcro, potenciando reaprender a olhar a realidade; iii) compreender a articulação entre a educação para a cidadania global e os direitos humanos, por via da literatura para a infância. Conclui-se que este livro-álbum potencia fortemente a liberdade das crianças redescobrirem, autonomamente, valores e alimenta a compreensão da sua pluralidade e diversidade, como meio de abranger a Educação como uma viagem permanentemente aberta – tendo os direitos das crianças no seu cerne
- Infrared thermography for risk reduction of nosocomial cross infections during the COVID-19 pandemicPublication . Castro, Renata Rodrigues Teixeira de; Neto, João Giffoni da Silveira; Alves, Leonardo de Souza Moreira; Moreno, Adalgiza Mafra; Orsini, Marco; Castro, Roberta Rodrigues Teixeira deAmong millions of people who may be infected with COVID-19, patients with cardiovascular disease and cancer exhibit the highest risks of having worse outcomes. These patients are subject to chronic disease decompensation and may be subjected to cross infection while visiting health facilities that are taking care of COVID-19 infected patients. Infrared thermography is a radiation-free, relatively inexpensive, non-contact, and non-invasive technology that could be used for mass-screening of patients and visitors with fever, especially in services where patients with cardiovascular disease seek for medical care, reducing the risk of cross infection.
- Drying of Maritime Plants: Effect on Antioxidant ActivityPublication . Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Barroca, M. J.; Mansinhos, I.; Silva, A. M.Salicornia and Sarcocornia belong to the same family and have similar morphological and organoleptic properties. [1]. The objective of this work was to evaluate the antioxidant activity extracts obtained from the plants in the fresh state and after being dried. Their extracts may represent a valuable source for developing novel food products (antioxidant-enriched foods), and/or table salt substitutes that satisfy the desires of consumers in terms of health benefits and sensorial acceptance. The plants (Salicornia macrostachya Moric. and Sarcocornia perennis) were collected from Portuguese salt pans, in the central region of Portugal and the aerial parts were used as raw material. The drying of plants was performed in a pilot tray drier at 40 ºC and air velocity of 1.5 ms -1 , for approximately three days. The initial moisture content was 92.30% and 84.24%, respectively, for Salicornia and Sarcocornia. The drying was carried out until reaching a final moisture content of 5%. The antioxidant activity was measured with DPPH method. Regarding the DPPH method, the results showed that the incubation time of 15 minutes is enough to measure the DPPH scavenging activity in halophyte extracts in the tested range of extract concentrations (Figure 1). However, the time defined to measure the DPPH scavenging activity was fixed at 30 minutes, since this was the common time in different laboratorial protocols. For Salicornia, the values of inhibition IC 50 were 1.09 and 1.12 mg/mL for the fresh and dried samples, respectively. For Sarcocornia, the values of IC 50 were 1.42 and 1.02 mg/mL for the fresh and dried samples, respectively. The results showed that the convective air-drying process at 40 ºC is adequate to improve the shelf life of the two halophyte plants, since the antioxidant activity was maintained or even improved as compared with the fresh samples. This might be due to a response of the plant to the stress induced by the heat and humidity conditions in the drying chamber. In this way, it was concluded that both studied halophyte plants constitute a valuable source of natural antioxidants when they are consumed as foods either in the fresh or dried states. Additionally, their extracts may represent a valuable source for developing novel antioxidant-enriched food products aimed to meet the desires of consumers who seek for health-beneficial foods.
- Project-based learning in Design and Multimedia in Higher Education: An interactive timeline developed in collaborationPublication . Figueiredo, Maria Pacheco; Alves, Valter; Lourenço, Carolina; Alves, Vitória; Bernardo, Marco; Carapito, NunoIn recent years, institutions of higher education have been trying to provide students with both hard skills, namely cognitive knowledge and professional skills (Vogler et al., 2018), and soft skills, such as problem-solving and teamwork (Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006). An important contribution to these is providing students with opportunities to participate in real problem-solving and knowledge construction in authentic professional contexts. One way to achieve this approach is through project-based learning (PjBL). The paper will present an instance of project-based learning in a specific degree – Technologies of Design and Multimedia (TDM). The project was connected to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu. The challenge was to develop an interactive timeline that would represent the history of the institution in the cities of Viseu and Lamego. The process of integrating that challenge in the program was managed in one of the courses titled “Interactive Contents” as Project-Based Learning since it was a learning process in which students were engaged in working on an authentic project and the development of a product (Chen & Yang, 2019). The students developed their proposals in close communication with the clients and with several rounds of feedback and development. This paper reports on that process looking into records and artifacts produced by students, teachers, and clients throughout the semester. Semi-structured interviews with the participants (teaching staff, students, and clients) complement the data. The content analysis is guided by the objective of describing a process of project-based learning in the area of Design and Multimedia including the voices of several participants. The results were analyzed considering Krajcik and Shin’s (2014) six hallmarks of Project-Based Learning: a driving question, the focus on learning goals, participation in educational activities, collaboration among students, the use of scaffolding technologies, and the creation of tangible artifacts. The creation of artifacts that solve authentic problems distinguishes Project-Based Learning from other student-centered pedagogies and requires learners to work together to find solutions to authentic problems in the process of knowledge integration, application, and construction (Helle, Tynjälä, & Olkinuora, 2006). The specificity of this feature in the area of Design and Multimedia will also be addressed.
- Algorithmic Thinking in Early Childhood Education: Opportunities and Supports in the Portuguese ContextPublication . Figueiredo, Maria Pacheco; Amante, Susana; Gomes, Helena Margarida dos Santos Vasconcelos; Gomes, Cristina Azevedo; Rego, Belmiro; Alves, Valter; Duarte, Rui PedroALGO-LITTLE is an EU-funded project, with partners from Portugal, Italy, Turkey and Slovenia, in search of ways to integrate Algorithmic Thinking skills into preschool education for the purpose of growing future code literates starting from the earliest ages. Algorithmic Thinking stems from the concept of an algorithm, which refers to solving a problem by developing a set of steps taken in a sequence to achieve the desired outcome (Katai, 2014). The concept can be traced to the work of Papert (1980, 1991) and is connected to the seminal article by Wing (2006) that introduced Computational Thinking. Barretal (2011) concluded that in K-12, Algorithmic Thinking involves problem-solving skills and particular dispositions, such as confidence and persistence when confronting particular problems. Early Childhood Education algorithmic skills include abilities to learn and work according to the rules or models since children are capable to understand, use, apply and develop simple algorithms. Children are also capable of analyzing and correcting the sequence of actions to reach results, transferring known methods of actions to new situations, and describing their activities to others in a clear way (Voronina et al., 2016; Games for learning algorithmic thinking, 2017). The paper analyses initiatives, studies, and projects that are connected to Algorithmic Thinking in Early Childhood Education in Portugal. A review of literature was developed, starting with curricular documents for Preschool Education (3 to 6 years old) and other documents from the ICT Educational Policy in the country. The second step was a search in databases for studies and projects that looked into Algorithmic Thinking and Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Education in Portugal. The analyses looked into the following themes: a) what definition and elements of Algorithmic Thinking are present?, b) to which concepts and curricular areas is it connected to?, c) what is expected that children in Early Childhood Education learn in relation to Algorithmic Thinking?, d) to what pedagogical elements is Algorithmic Thinking related to?. In terms of curricular documents, it was found that code has been relevant for Portuguese Early Childhood Education (at least) since 1997. In their first edition, the Portuguese Curricular Guidelines for Pre-School Education (Ministério da Educação, 1997) included computer code as one of the codes children should get acquainted with. This meant its inclusion under the domain “Spoken Language and Introductory Writing”. It was stated that “code” was present and would be necessary in children’s lives and could be used in arts, music, mathematic, or writing (Portuguese) (p. 72). This approach was positively singled out by the OECD report: addressing the topic of ICT in the guidelines interconnected with other forms of communication and information learning (Taguma et al., 2012). In 2016, the Portuguese Curricular Guidelines for Pre-School Education (PCGPSE) were reviewed and this second version amplifies the mentions to technology. The findings include an analysis for each of the six curricular areas and domains. In terms of studies and projects, the “Kids Media Lab Project II” stood out as the only systematic initiative for promoting Computational Thinking in Preschool Education (Pinto, Fernandes & Osório, 2021). In the findings, the main elements of the project are discussed.
- Food Choice Determinants and Perceptions of a Healthy Diet among Italian ConsumersPublication . Wongprawmas, Rungsaran; Mora, Cristina; Pellegrini, Nicoletta; Guiné, Raquel P. F.; Carini, Eleonora; Sogari, Giovanni; Vittadini, ElenaHealthy food choices are crucial for a healthy lifestyle. However, food choices are complex and affected by various factors. Understanding the determinant factors affecting food choices could aid policy-makers in designing better strategies to promote healthy food choices in the general public. This study aims to evaluate the food choice motivations and to segment consumer groups, according to their food choice motivations, in a sample of 531 Italian consumers (collected by convenience sampling), through offline and online survey platforms. K-means cluster analysis was applied to identify consumer groups using six food choice motivation categories (health, emotional, economic and availability, social and cultural, environmental and political, and marketing and commercial). The results suggest that the strongest determinants for the food choices of Italian consumers are Environmental factors and Health. Two consumer profiles were identified through the segmentation analysis: Emotional eating and Health-driven consumers. The respondents were found to have a good awareness of what comprises a healthy diet. There is a potential market for healthy and sustainable food products, especially products with minimal or environmentally friendly packages. Food labels and information strategies could be promoted as tools to assist consumers to make healthy food choices.