O trabalho colaborativo como promotor de desenvolvimento profissional: perspectivas de formandos e formadores do PFCM

Um dos princípios definidos no Programa de Formação Contínua em Matemática (PFCM), é o da valorização do trabalho colaborativo entre diferentes actores (formandos e formadores), com vista à preparação e condução de experiências de desenvolvimento curricular e de modo a permitir capitalizar energias, proporcionar apoio acrescido, multiplicar perspectivas, enriquecer a reflexão. A expressão “trabalho colaborativo” é uma das mais empregues para referir um tipo de trabalho conjunto e com um objectivo comum. Contudo, nem sempre é claro quais são as características específicas associadas a esse tipo de trabalho e como deve ser levado a cabo. Enquanto formadores do PFCM uma das premissas que tem orientado o nosso trabalho é a de considerarmos como trabalho colaborativo aquele onde, de facto, ocorre um trabalho conjunto, existe uma efectiva partilha de ideias e experiências, uma reflexão profunda sobre a prática e os conhecimentos necessários nesta, perseguindo um objectivo comum – a melhoria das práticas de sala de aula dos professores. Neste texto apresentamos e discutimos perspectivas de formandos do PFCM sobre o trabalho colaborativo desenvolvido e aspectos emergentes desse trabalho, durante a Formação, bem como o seu efectivo impacto na prática lectiva. Iremos ainda discutir e apresentar algumas reflexões sobre o papel deste tipo de trabalho nas/para as nossas próprias práticas – como professores e como formadores

Adult Attachment and Dyadic Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Shame

Although it is widely recognized that adult attachment is associated with romantic relationship quality, the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of external and internal shame on the association between attachment and dyadic adjustment. A battery of self-report measures was completed by 228 Portuguese participants and a serial multiple mediation model was tested. Data showed that, in the population under study, attachment dimensions were associated with worse dyadic adjustment through high external and internal shame. Internal shame alone also mediated the association between attachment avoidance and dyadic adjustment. This study identifies a new putative mechanism linking adult attachment and intimate relationship functioning that may be targeted in couples therapy to promote a better dyadic adjustment and relationship functioning

The impact of a professional development program in teacher's pratice

Among the many ways in which a teacher can develop him/herself professionally can be found the participation in training programmes. In this paper we will present some results of research which was intended to achieve a deeper understanding about the impact of a Program for Continuous Training in Mathematics for Portuguese Primary School Teachers on teachers’ practices and professional development. With that aim, we focus on teachers’ reflections concerning their participation in such a program and its influence in changing their practices

Relationships between body symmetry during weight-bearing and functional reach among chronic hemiparetic patients

Contextualização: O controle postural está freqüentemente prejudicado nas condições de hemiparesias. Quando na posição em pé, sujeitos hemiparéticos oscilam mais do que sujeitos sem hemicorpo afetado, adotando posturas assimétricas com maior descarga de peso na perna não afetada. Objetivo: Analisar o alcance funcional e a dependência por dispositivo de apoio em hemiparéticos crônicos, verificando correlações entre deslocamentos de alcance funcional e valores de simetria de descarga de peso durante a posição em pé. Métodos: Quatorze hemiparéticos classificados em dependentes ou independentes de dispositivo de apoio foram incluídos nos procedimentos experimentais para registro de deslocamento de alcance funcional e valores de simetria. Resultados: Nenhuma diferença significativa foi obtida entre os dependentes e os independentes de dispositivo de apoio para todas as variáveis. Porém, quando a descarga de peso ocorreu no lado não afetado, os mais altos deslocamentos foram significativamente correlacionados com os hemiparéticos mais assimétricos. Conclusão: A simetria não favorece o alcance funcional nem a independência de dispositivo de apoio em hemiparéticos.Background: Postural control is often impaired in hemiparetic patients. During upright stance, hemiparetic subjects sway more than subjects with an unaffected hemibody, and they assume asymmetrical postures to place less weight on the affected side. Objective: To analyze functional reach and dependence on support devices among people with chronic hemiparesis and to investigate the relationships between displacements of functional reach and weight-bearing symmetry during upright stance. Methods: Fourteen participants with hemiparesis, classifed as dependent on support devices or independent from them, were included in experimental procedures to record functional reach displacements and symmetry values. Results: No signifcant differences were found between the dependent and independent participants for any variable. However, when weight-bearing occurred on the unaffected side, the greatest displacements were signifcantly correlated with the most asymmetrical hemiparetic participants. Conclusion: Symmetry did not contribute to functional reach or independence from support devices among participants with hemiparesis

Adult attachment insecurity and dyadic adjustment: The mediating role of self-criticism

Although it is well established that adult attachment is associated with relationship quality, the mechanisms involved in this association are still poorly understood. Individual variables that are shaped in early attachment experiences, such as self-criticism, may be particularly important. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of self-criticism and self-reassurance on the association between attachment-related anxiety and avoidance and dyadic adjustment

Selective albumin-binding surfaces modified with a thrombin-inhibiting peptide

Blood-contacting medical devices have been associated with severe clinical complications, such as thrombus formation, triggered by the activation of the coagulation cascade due to the adsorption of certain plasma proteins on the surface of biomaterials. Hence, the coating of such surfaces with antithrombotic agents has been used to increase biomaterial haemocompatibility. Biomaterial-induced clotting may also be decreased by albumin adsorption from blood plasma in a selective and reversible way, since this protein is not involved in the coagulation cascade. In this context, this paper reports that the immobilization of the thrombin inhibitor D-Phe-Pro-D-Arg-D-Thr-CONH2 (fPrt) onto nanostructured surfaces induces selective and reversible adsorption of albumin, delaying the clotting time when compared to peptide-free surfaces. fPrt, synthesized with two glycine residues attached to the N-terminus (GGfPrt), was covalently immobilized onto self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) having different ratios of carboxylate-hexa(ethylene glycol)- and tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated thiols (EG6-COOH/EG3) that were specifically designed to control GGfPrt orientation, exposure and density at the molecular level. In solution, GGfPrt was able to inactivate the enzymatic activity of thrombin and to delay plasma clotting time in a concentration-dependent way. After surface immobilization, and independently of its concentration, GGfPrt lost its selectivity to thrombin and its capacity to inhibit thrombin enzymatic activity against the chromogenic substrate n-p-tosyl-Gly-Pro-Arg-p-nitroanilide. Nevertheless, surfaces with low concentrations of GGfPrt could delay the capacity of adsorbed thrombin to cleave fibrinogen. In contrast, GGfPrt immobilized in high concentrations was found to induce the procoagulant activity of the adsorbed thrombin. However, all surfaces containing GGfPrt have a plasma clotting time similar to the negative control (empty polystyrene wells), showing resistance to coagulation, which is explained by its capacity to adsorb albumin in a selective and reversible way. This work opens new perspectives to the improvement of the haemocompatibility of blood-contacting medical devices

Elucidating how the saprophytic fungus Aspergillus nidulans uses the plant polyester suberin as carbon source

Lipid polymers in plant cell walls, such as cutin and suberin, build recalcitrant hydrophobic protective barriers. Their degradation is of foremost importance for both plant pathogenic and saprophytic fungi. Regardless of numerous reports on fungal degradation of emulsified fatty acids or cutin, and on fungi-plant interactions, the pathways involved in the degradation and utilisation of suberin remain largely overlooked. As a structural component of the plant cell wall, suberin isolation, in general, uses harsh depolymerisation methods that destroy its macromolecular structure. We recently overcame this limitation isolating suberin macromolecules in a near-native state.work partially supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA financial mechanism (Project PT015), FCT: grant (PEst-OE/EQB/LA0004/2013) and fellowships (SFRH/BD/38378/2007, SFRH/BD/66396/2009, SFRH/BD/66030/2009, SFRH/BD/48286/2008), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian fellowship (21-95587-B)

Quantifying chaos for ecological stoichiometry

The theory of ecological stoichiometry considers ecological interactions among species with different chemical compositions. Both experimental and theoretical investigations have shown the importance of species composition in the outcome of the population dynamics. A recent study of a theoretical three-species food chain model considering stoichiometry [B. Deng and I. Loladze, Chaos 17, 033108 (2007)] shows that coexistence between two consumers predating on the same prey is possible via chaos. In this work we study the topological and dynamical measures of the chaotic attractors found in such a model under ecological relevant parameters. By using the theory of symbolic dynamics, we first compute the topological entropy associated with unimodal Poincareacute return maps obtained by Deng and Loladze from a dimension reduction. With this measure we numerically prove chaotic competitive coexistence, which is characterized by positive topological entropy and positive Lyapunov exponents, achieved when the first predator reduces its maximum growth rate, as happens at increasing delta(1). However, for higher values of delta(1) the dynamics become again stable due to an asymmetric bubble-like bifurcation scenario. We also show that a decrease in the efficiency of the predator sensitive to prey's quality (increasing parameter zeta) stabilizes the dynamics. Finally, we estimate the fractal dimension of the chaotic attractors for the stoichiometric ecological model

Alteração do comprimento do passo durante a transposição de obstáculos em tarefas de movimentação de cargas na construção civil

A Construção Civil tem sido o sector que regista maior incidência de acidentes fatais a nível mundial. Diversos estudos têm sido efectuados no sentido de compreender as causas que contribuem para a ocorrência de elevados índices de sinistralidade neste sector. Todavia, o contributo da movimentação manual de cargas, para a ocorrência de quedas na Construção Civil, tem sido descurado. No presente artigo procedeu-se, através de simulação laboratorial, ao estudo da influência da movimentação manual de cargas para a ocorrência de acidentes em operações envolvendo a transposição de obstáculos em obra. Verificou-se que o comprimento de passo e a passada do pé de avanço são alterados com o transporte de carga, aumentando a probabilidade de ocorrência de acidentes envolvendo quedas

Differences between CO- and calcium triplet-derived velocity dispersions in spiral galaxies: evidence for central star formation?

We examine the stellar velocity dispersions (sigma) of a sample of 48 galaxies, 35 of which are spirals, from the Palomar nearby galaxy survey. It is known that for ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and merger remnants thesigma derived from the near-infrared CO band-heads is smaller than that measured from optical lines, while no discrepancy between these measurements is found for early-type galaxies. No such studies are available for spiral galaxies - the subject of this paper. We used cross-dispersed spectroscopic data obtained with the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS), with spectral coverage from 0.85 to 2.5um, to obtain sigma measurements from the 2.29 $\mu$m CO band-heads (sigma_{CO}), and the 0.85 um calcium triplet (sigma_{CaT}). For the spiral galaxies in the sample, we found that sigma_{CO} is smaller than sigma_{CaT}, with a mean fractional difference of 14.3%. The best fit to the data is given by sigma_{opt} = (46.0+/-18.1) + (0.85+/-0.12)sigma_{CO}. This "sigma discrepancy" may be related to the presence of warm dust, as suggested by a slight correlation between the discrepancy and the infrared luminosity. This is consistent with studies that have found no sigma-discrepancy in dust-poor early-type galaxies, and a much larger discrepancy in dusty merger remnants and ULIRGs. That sigma_{CO}$ is lower than sigma_{opt} may also indicate the presence of a dynamically cold stellar population component. This would agree with the spatial correspondence between low sigma_{CO} and young/intermediate-age stellar populations that has been observed in spatially-resolved spectroscopy of a handful of galaxies.Comment: Published in MNRAS, 446, 282