Depressive mothers often find the mother-child interaction to be challenging. Parental stress may further impair mother-child attachment, which may increase the risk of negative developmental consequences. We used rats with different vulnerability to depression (Wistar and Kyoto) to investigate the impact of stress (maternal separationMS) on maternal behaviour and adolescent offspring cognition. MS in Kyoto dams increased pup-contact, resulting in higher oxytocin levels and lower anxiety-like behaviour after weaning, while worsening their adolescent offspring cognitive behaviour. Whereas MS in Wistar dams elicited higher quality of pup-directed behaviour, increasing Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the offspring, which seems to have prevented a negative impact on cognition. Hypothalamic oxytocin seems to impact the salience of the social environment cues (as negative for Kyoto) leading to different coping strategies. Our findings highlight the importance of contextual and individual factors in the understanding of the oxytocin role in modulating maternal behaviour and stress regulatory processes.

In modern, high-speed work settings, the significance of mental health disorders is increasingly acknowledged as a pressing health issue, with potential adverse consequences for organizations, including reduced productivity and increased absenteeism. Over the past few years, various mental health management solutions, such as biofeedback applications, have surfaced as promising avenues to improve employees' mental well-being. To gain deeper insights into the suitability and effectiveness of employing biofeedback-based mental health interventions in real-world workplace settings, given that most research has predominantly been conducted within controlled laboratory conditions. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies that used biofeedback interventions in workplace settings. The review focused on traditional biofeedback, mindfulness, app-directed interventions, immersive scenarios, and in-depth physiological data presentation. The review identified nine studies employing biofeedback interventions in the workplace. Breathing techniques showed great promise in decreasing stress and physiological parameters, especially when coupled with visual and/or auditory cues. Future research should focus on developing and implementing interventions to improve well-being and mental health in the workplace, with the goal of creating safer and healthier work environments and contributing to the sustainability of organizations.

This research aims to reflect on ethical issues in the teaching-learning process in portuguese higher education in the context of Bologna, in particular the troubling reality of plagiarism practiced by students. To relate this issue with information literacy (IL) is inevitable, as at several international standards of IL, the question of ethics, copyright and plagiarism recurs. We highlight in the literature review, some investigations that focus on these matters, although of crucial importance, but wich don’t have had, in our view, adequate attention or the most appropriate practical action to deal with them. From a PhD research, carried out in a portuguese polytechnic higher school, focusing on eight undergraduate degrees in the areas of Accounting, Information Science, Human Resources, Design, Hotel Management and Engineering, we will stand out some results and interpretations of a study on IL and training for IL, highlighting, among others, the question of ethics and plagiarism, wich are regarded by different actors of the educational process. Through data gathering instruments - online questionnaires applied to teachers and students of these undergraduate degrees - and interviews ministered to the course coordinators and the librarian of the institution, there is enough material to conclusions betting on the need for a formal and continuing training, with collaborative actions between the educational agents and institutional reinforcement and impact.

Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are today essential in the world of work, leisure and especially in terms of communication, as these have a strong impact on life in society, on the economy and on business competitiveness. We live in a society characterized by the constant advance of ICT and young people who attend schools and universities have a very technological experience, as they have already grown up in a context where technology is very accessible and is part of their daily lives. This investigation aims to reflect on issues that arise in the context of the Information and Knowledge Society and which are important to answer. How is the use of ICT evolving in Portugal? Are we making good use of them and taking advantage of their potential? How do educational institutions deal with ICT? Higher Education Libraries (HEL) play a decisive role in the dissemination of knowledge, and should reinforce users' information literacy skills and guide them towards the use of credible scientific resources. It is therefore important that HEL be proactive with and through ICT. The present work intends to make the state of the art of the use of ICT, within the scope of HEL, in Portugal and in the last ten years, trying to understand how they perform this function, providing users with quick access to quality information. This objective is complemented by a survey of statistical data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), Eurostat and Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) that provide a quantitative view of the evolution of ICT in the last ten years. As a result of the theoretical research carried out, some aspects that may provide necessary changes in the university context are highlighted, namely: i) there are considerable gaps in terms of human resources, mainly due to the lack of adequate training, resistance to change and lack of motivation, although the infrastructures, technological equipment and communications are satisfactory. Given that university librarians are important to the successful use of ICT, their training is crucial and urgent; ii) One must understand the rapid change imposed by ICT and take advantage of this change to evolve and better position libraries in higher education establishments, which will allow them to stop being seen as book stores. This is a challenge for all library staff and should be a priority for management bodies; iii) National support initiatives and programs are of great importance, with continued, persistent and monitored investment being crucial, with cooperation between ministries, an investment that will enable libraries to be provided with new digital resources. In conclusion, the authors - a librarian at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and a professor of higher education in Porto Accounting and Business School, in the field of Information Science - feel that, from now, in the exercise of their professions, they will be able to influence other educational agents for the advantages of a necessary digital transformation.

Order picking consists in retrieving products from storage locations to sat- isfy independent orders from multiple customers. It is generally recognized as one of the most significant activities in a warehouse (Koster et al, 2007). In fact, order picking accounts up to 50% (Frazelle, 2001) or even 80% (Van den Berg, 1999) of the total warehouse operating costs. The critical issue in today’s business environ- ment is to simultaneously reduce the cost and increase the speed of order picking. In this paper, we address the order picking process in one of the Portuguese largest companies in the grocery business. This problem was proposed at the 92nd European Study Group with Industry (ESGI92). In this setting, each operator steers a trolley on the shop floor in order to select items for multiple customers. The objective is to improve their grocery e-commerce and bring it up to the level of the best inter- national practices. In particular, the company wants to improve the routing tasks in order to decrease distances. For this purpose, a mathematical model for a faster open shop picking was developed. In this paper, we describe the problem, our proposed solution as well as some preliminary results and conclusions.

We address a routing/assignment problem posed by Neoturf, which is a Portuguese company working in the area of project, building and garden’s main- tenance. The aim is to define a procedure for scheduling and routing efficiently its clients of garden maintenance services. The company has two teams available throughout the year to handle all the maintenance jobs. Each team consists of two or three employees with a fully-equipped vehicle capable of carrying out every kind of maintenance service. At the beginning of each year, the number and frequency of maintenance interventions to conduct during the year, for each client, are agreed. Time windows are established so that visits to the client should occur only within these periods. There are clients that are supposed to be always served by the same team, but other clients can be served indifferently by any of the two teams. Since clients are geographically spread over a wide region, the total distance traveled while visiting clients is a factor that weighs heavily on the company costs. Neoturf is con- cerned with reducing these costs, while satisfying agreements with its clients. We give a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the problem, discuss lim- itations on the size of instances that can be solved to guarantee optimality, present a modification of the Clarke and Wright heuristic for the vehicle routing with time windows, and report preliminary computational results obtained with Neoturf data.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) encompasses a spectrum of disorders characterized by distinct behavioral, cognitive, and motor symptoms. Deficits in interoception and allostasis have garnered attention, considering the involvement of the allostatic-interoceptive network in FTD, their contribution to canonical social cognitive and affective deficits, and the identification of whole-body biomarkers related to autonomic and allostatic processes. Traditionally, interoception has been defined as the perception of visceral signals, yet contemporary understandings broaden this to encompass both the representation and regulation of the physiological state across bodily tissues. Consequently, interoceptive deficits in FTD extend beyond classical viscerosensory paradigms to include pain, temperature, autonomic, metabolic, immune, and neuroendocrine phenomena. Allostasis involves the prospective regulation of energy balance, as well as the anticipation and adaptive response to homeostatic challenges. These repeated challenges result in physiological consequences measurable by markers of allostatic load, spanning various bodily systems. Despite emerging evidence highlighting dysfunction in interoception and allostasis in FTD, the literature remains fragmented, lacking cohesive reviews addressing the diverse mechanisms comprehensively. Thus, this scoping review examines the reciprocal interaction between brain and bodily physiology (interoception) and the physiological responses to environmental demands (allostatic load) in FTD. Following the principles outlined in the PRISMA statement, we will systematically search and screen quantitative primary research studies on patients with FTD, utilizing interoceptive or allostatic metrics. By synthesizing the existing literature, we aim to identify active research areas, delineate primary deficits across physiological systems, uncover syndrome-specific patterns of dysfunction, and identify the most promising and understudied domains in this field.

Communication skills are considered increasingly important by higher education institutions, but also by employers as they influence better professional perfor-mance. The literature review recommends a necessary and desirable alignment of the communicational aspect of academic curricula with work needs, so that graduates have professional success. The objective of this research is to know how communicational skills are seen and valued in higher education, specifically in a Portuguese Polytechnic Accounting and Business School. For this purpose, undergraduate and Masters students who integrate courses or approaches related to communicational skills are surveyed. Coordinators of some of these courses (who are also professors) are consulted too. The methodology adopted is the case study and the data collection techniques are questionnaires applied to a sample of students and interviews carried out with the Coordinators of some of afore-mentioned courses. According to a self-assessment carried out by students, it was concluded that their average communication performance is very good, which is not in line with the literature review. As for the existence of training, within the scope of communication skills, course coordinators and most students consider that these should be taught in higher education. In the opinion of the course di-rectors, there is an alignment between the skills taught in the courses and those that are required in the job market, an opinion that a not very expressive majority of students also share, although an overwhelming majority of students consider that this should be done. Course coordinators and students suggest motivating, practical and work-related pedagogical approaches for greater development of the skills in analysis.

O uso da realidade virtual no contexto da saúde é sobretudo direcionado para tratamento de perturbações mentais e alterações de comportamento (Coelho et al., 2008; Emmel et al., 2002; Ku et al., 2006; Wald & Taylor, 2000), existindo lacunas no seu uso para o treino de profissionais de socorro expostos a incidentes críticos indutores de stress, que, pelo seu impacto psicológico afetam o seu desempenho profissional e a tomada de decisão (Maia, 2007; Mitchell & Everly, 2003). Recentemente assiste-se ao enfatizar da realidade virtual no contexto da saúde e do trabalho (Jacques et al., 2009; Riva et al., 2002; Rizzo, 2001) e existem já programas que permitem em condições securizantes treinar competências e melhorar a gestão do stress.

No campo das múltiplas interações que ocorrem no acolhimento familiar, destaca-se a relação entre a criança acolhida e a família biológica, pelo impacto que tem no desenvolvimento da criança. Esta relação gera um conjunto de ligações que pode proporcionar ou dificultar à criança a possibilidade de partilhar valores, experiências e conselhos entre aqueles dois mundos. A manutenção das relações pessoais entre os pais e a criança acolhida é um direito de ambos, exceto se contrariar o interesse superior da criança, já que o corte abrupto das relações estabelecidas interfere na organização dos vínculos futuros. O presente artigo resulta da investigação em curso, no distrito do Porto, intitulado «Contacto no acolhimento familiar: padrões, resultados e modelos de gestão», no âmbito de atuação do InEd, o Centro de Investigação e Inovação em Educação da Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar os resultados do contacto entre a criança em acolhimento familiar e a sua família de origem, bem como as causas da sua inexistência ou cessação. Os resultados preliminares evidenciam que a maioria das crianças e jovens têm contacto com a sua família de origem, ocorrendo em quase 50% dos casos na casa da família de acolhimento, mas nem sempre com a regularidade desejada. Apesar do impacto do contacto na criança ou jovem ser muito diversificado, a maioria manifesta reações emocionais e comportamentais positivas. Por fim, apresentam se implicações para a prática dos técnicos envolvidos neste fenómeno.