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Peer-assessed online collaborative writing is of growing importance for higher education. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of collected data, this work presents the results of a case study in a graduate civil engineering course at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal. After an overall presentation of the learning activity, it examines students' attitudes towards web-based peer assessment and identifies which factors are related to students' use and appreciation of feedback. In addition, an analysis of the type of feedback is presented in an attempt to evaluate students' written communication skills. The results of this study provide indications on how to improve the design and implementation of future web-based peer assessment tasks and raise questions on the effectiveness of peer/teacher grading in the use of feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Intimate partner violence is an important worldwide problem. In general, men are considered perpetrators of this type of violence, but they can also be victims. The experience of men as victims of intimate partner violence is not yet described and characterized in Portugal. The aim of this study is to contribute to characterize this phenomenon to better understand it, including the temporary and permanent physical harm to men's health, in a medico-legal and forensic perspective., Material and Methods: This study is a retrospective analysis of 535 suspected cases of male victims of intimate partner violence, aged 18 years or older, observed in the Clinical Forensic Medicine Department of the North Branch of National Institute of Legal Medicine of Portugal, between 2007 and 2009., Results: Over this period, 4646 suspected victims of intimate partner violence were examined; 11.5% (n = 535) of them were men. Male victims' age range was 18-89 years, with an average of 41 years; 61.5% were married; all of the documented cases had completed primary instruction; most of them were employed; 16.2% reported being victims of childhood abuse. The alleged perpetrators were all females; their age range was 19-81 years, with an average of 38 years; 9.3% had history of alcohol abuse and 12.1% had a psychiatric disorder; 11% claimed to have been abused in the childhood. Victims were married to the perpetrators in 63.9% of the cases; 81.6% had previous history of intimate partner violence, however, most of them did not report it to the authorities and only a minority sought medical care (8.1%) because of this previous abuses. Concerning the reported violent episode, the most common mechanisms of aggression were scratching (18.9%), punching (16.7%) and hit with a blunt object (16.6%). The most common injury was an abrasion; upper limbs were the most frequent injury's location; 96.1% healed in less than 9 days; 4.9% had sequelae (scars); 36.9% sought medical care., Conclusions: The reported cases of intimate partner violence against men represent 11.5% of the total of these cases observed in the medico-legal services of Porto. This number may be bigger because men tend to underreport and hide this kind of victimization, and also because injuries usually are mild (women perpetrate psychological abuse and minor acts of physical violence). Male victims may benefit from preventive and informative public policy campaigns., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Since 1993 in Portugal, it is possible, by legal enforcement, to request forensic examination to study possible conditions of drug addiction. On the basis of examinations carried out in the Medico Legal Institute of Oporto, we present a study of 494 cases involving the relation to the demographic data of the examined individuals, their family background, legal situation, age at which drug consumption began, consumption profile at the beginning and at time of forensic examination and our conclusions.

The authors aim to characterise sexual abuse within the marital relationship. They analyzed the reports of the clinical examinations performed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Oporto on victims of sexual abuse from January 1990 until December 1994. They also randomly interviewed victims of physical abuse at the Institute to determine if sexual abuse was performed by their partners. This study shows that complaints are rarely reported by victims of sexual abuse in marital relationships, and in all the cases studied where sexual abuse was verified it was accompanied by other forms of abuse.