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This paper analyzes the technical efficiency of the Lisbon police precincts in order to investigate its performance. A stochastic cost frontier model is used to generate efficiency scores, assuming that efficiency is time varying. It investigates its efficiency and finds that the results are, at best, mixed since the efficient scores are low and not time varying. Therefore, an alteration of management procedures is proposed in order to enable efficiency to be increased based on a governance-environment framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare workers, particularly nurses, engage in a daily work routine that takes a toll on their emotional well-being, rendering them vulnerable to psychosocial risk factors. This research seeks to analyse the influence of psychosocial risk factors on the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among nurses. An additional analysis was performed to understand the role of age in work-related musculoskeletal disorders and the perception of psychosocial risk factors. The study was conducted during two separate periods-pre-pandemic and pandemic times-involving a sample of 456 nurses from both public and private hospitals in Portugal. The INSAT-Health and Work Survey-was used as measuring instrument. The primary observations indicated a consistency between psychosocial risk factors and the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The findings revealed a significant exposure to psychosocial risk factors, with work pace, intensity, work relationships, and emotional demands exhibiting higher global average percentages during both periods, pre-pandemic and pandemic. Nonetheless, we find that the psychosocial risk factors change when we analyse the pre-pandemic and pandemic results. During the period before the pandemic, the psychosocial risk factors that were most commonly reported included the demanding pace of work, long working hours, and emotional demands. Through the pandemic, the most pronounced psychosocial risk factors were work relationships, employment relationships, and ethical and values conflicts. Therefore, research in this domain is essential to understanding psychosocial risk factors and assessing the less obvious links between work and health.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to translate the Pediatric International Knee Documentation Committee Score (Pedi-IKDC) into European Portuguese language. The Pedi-IKDC was originally developed in the English language and its main construct is functional assessment of knee disorders in children and adolescents., Material and Methods: The original English version of the questionnaire was translated to European Portuguese using the forwardbackwards method. Patients aged eight to 17 with knee disorders were considered eligible for the study. An online platform was implemented to collect patient responses, including general patient information, the questionnaires Pedi-IKDC, EuroQol-5 Dimension Youth and Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire. Three surveys were sent: at the moment of first evaluation (T0), after two (T1) and ten (T2) weeks. These surveys followed the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments - COSMIN Checklist recommendations. The internal consistency, reliability, error of measurement, structural and construct validity (by means of correlation with previously validated scales), responsiveness and interpretability (floor/ceiling effects, MIC and ROC curve) were evaluated., Results: Forty-seven patients completed T0, 42 patients completed T1 and 40 patients completed T2. The factorial analysis confirmed that the scale has one dimension. Cronbach alpha (α) was 0.94; interclass correlation coefficient was 0.92; smallest detectable change was 19.04 for individuals and 3.31 for groups; standard error of measurement was 6.87; minimum important change was 18.48; floor and ceiling effects were absent. More than 75% of the hypotheses tested for construct validity were confirmed, showing its adequacy. The variation of scores between T0 and T2 correlated with the clinical evolution of the participants (r = 0.421, p < 0.05)., Conclusion: The Portuguese version of Pedi-IKDC demonstrated good psychometric properties, being a valuable tool for clinical assessment of pediatric patients with knee disorder.

The purpose of this study was to develop the Health and Work Survey (INSAT) and examine the validity of the discomfort rating scale. Data were collected from 706 Portuguese workers from six economic sectors with the support of the Health and Work Survey (INSAT - Inquérito Saúde e Trabalho). The INSAT is a self-administered questionnaire to assessing working conditions, health and wellbeing, and to provide information to the occupational health systems in the organisations. For the survey instrument validation, the Rasch Partial Credit Model (PCM) was used to analyse item fit statistics. From the application of PCM, Person Separation Reliability was obtained (0.8761) and the value can be considered very good (>0.8). From the statistical analysis, the Overall Model fit information, given by Outfit Mean square/Infit Mean square, is between 0.5 and 1.5, meaning "Productive for measurement" and "acceptable fit overall". The INSAT items can generate predictable response patterns. We recommend that the INSAT discomfort rating scale and some other items should be reviewed in future works. In any event, this tool proves to be useful in assessing the relationship between work and health and in evaluating key main risk factors, helping to prevent problems and improving occupational health systems.

Hb Plasencia is a thalassemic hemoglobin (Hb) mutation caused by a leucine to arginine replacement at residue 125 of the α2-globin chain (HBA2:c.377T>G). This variant was first described in the heterozygous state in association with a very mild α-thalassemic phenotype in three members of a Spanish family from Plasencia, Western Spain. Reviewing the molecular characterization of 308 Portuguese individual suspected of having α-thalassemia (α-thal) we found Hb Plasencia to be the second most frequent mutation after the -α(3.7) deletion.

In this study, an ethanolic extract from Portuguese propolis was prepared, fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography, and the identification of the phenolic compounds was done by electrospray mass spectrometry in the negative mode. This technical approach allowed the identification of 37 phenolic compounds, which included not only the typical phenolic acids and flavonoids found in propolis from temperate zones but also several compounds in which its occurrence have never been referred to in the literature. Four of the novel phenolic compounds were methylated and/or esterified or hydroxylated derivatives of common poplar flavonoids, although six peculiar derivatives of pinocembrin/pinobanksin, containing a phenylpropanoic acid derivative moiety in their structure, were also identified. Furthermore, the Portuguese propolis sample was shown to contain a p-coumaric ester derivative dimer.