The objective of this thesis is to understand and analyze the offensive tactical fundamentals in women's youth basketball as assumed by coaches and observed in the context of the game. The work is divided into four complementary studies: (1) theoretical reflection, (2) coaches' narratives, (3) social network analysis, and (4) space and time dynamics, with a focus on positional attack and the respective tactical formations. The theoretical study reflecting on the landscape of basketball for children and young athletes emphasizes the homeostasis of team play, combining individual tactics with group and collective tactics, promoting the development of autonomy and motor literacy, and combining athletic performance with citizenship. The qualitative study based on interviews with 13 coaches identifies critical issues such as environment management, transitions between levels, and relational practices in training. The results emphasize that training should be a continuous process of critical reflection, where uncertainty and complexity foster the development of new questions, to which methodology can contribute to a better understanding. The empirical component of the thesis focuses on the interaction and relationship between players in the team in collective cooperation in the under-14 and under-16 age groups, comparing the variation in team relationship and spatial interaction of players within the 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 offensive formations. Study 3 adopted Social Network Analysis (SNA) to compare the positional attack formations adopted by three district teams, analyzing the following metrics: degree of prestige (passes to teammates), degree of centralization (receiving the ball from teammates), reciprocity (passes between certain players), and density (inclusion of all players in the positional attack).The metrics were similar between tactical formations, with the exception of reciprocity, which revealed a greater number of passes between groups in the 2-2-1 structure. Study 4 used the local positioning system (LPS) to examine occupied space using the Convex Hull metric and to study dominated space using the Voronois metric. Technical-tactical actions such as dribbling, passing, and shooting were also studied. The data indicate that offensive formations did not significantly alter spatial dynamics; however, the 1-2-2 structure in the under-14 age group showed a greater tendency to use passing. The under-16 athletes demonstrated greater offensive dominance and more compact defensive organization. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that understanding youth basketball requires differentiated but collaborative approaches to improve the knowledge and training perspectives of coaches and players in order to solve game problems within tactical formations that favor both individual and collective homeostasis. KEYWORDS: BASKETBALL, SPORTS FORMATION, COACHES, TACTICAL FORMATIONS, SPACE OCCUPATION, TEAM DYNAMICS.

The overarching aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate how hamstring strain injury risk in high-performance football players is influenced by the organisation, modulation and degradation of sprinting mechanics under different task related and fatigue induced constraints. To address this aim, four studies were conducted using biomechanical modelling, time continuous analyses and coordination based approaches: (i) how wearable resistance modulates the distribution of hamstring mechanical stress during sprinting; (ii) whether targeted running technique interventions reorganise intersegmental coordination patterns during football specific sprint tasks; (iii) the relevance of running technique as a strategy to mitigate hamstring injury risk; and (iv) how neuromuscular fatigue alters sprint mechanics. Across studies, the findings demonstrate that hamstring mechanical demand during sprinting is highly sensitive to changes in movement organisation. Wearable resistance induced temporally localised modulation of hamstring mechanical stress. Running technique interventions were associated with reorganisation of intersegmental coordination patterns and coordination variability. Conversely, fatigue emerged as a destabilising constraint that degrades coordination and concentrates mechanical demand. In conclusion, this thesis advances an integrative neuromechanical framework in which hamstring strain injury risk during sprinting in professional football is shaped not solely by the magnitude of mechanical demand, but by its temporal organisation, adaptive modulation and robustness under fatigue. By integrating biomechanical, neuromuscular and coordinative perspectives, the present work provides a more nuanced and ecologically valid foundation for technique-informed, constraint-based hamstring injury prevention strategies in high-performance football.

Background: There is evidence of negative attitudes among health professionals towards people with mental illness but there is also a knowledge gap on what training must be given to these health professionals during their education. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes of students of health sciences: nursing, medical, occupational therapy, and psychology. Methods: A comparative and cross-sectional study in which 927 final-year students from health sciences university programmes were evaluated using the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes (both MICA-2 and MICA-4) scale. The sample was taken in six universities from Chile and Spain. Results: We found consistent results indicating that stigma varies across university programmes. Medical and nursing students showed more negative attitudes than psychology and occupational therapy students in several stigma-related themes: recovery, dangerousness, uncomfortability, disclosure, and discriminatory behaviour. Conclusions: Our study presents a relevant description of the attitudes of each university programme for education against stigma in the formative years. Results show that the biomedical understanding of mental disorders can have negative effects on attitudes, and that education based on the psychosocial model allows a more holistic view of the person over the diagnosis.

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a group of chronic autoimmune diseases mainly affecting proximal muscles. Absence of meaningful prognostic factors in IIM has hindered new therapies development. Glycans are essential molecules that regulate immunological tolerance and consequently the onset of autoreactive immune response. We showed that muscle biopsies from patients with IIM revealed a deficiency in the glycosylation pathway resulting in loss of branched N-glycans. At diagnosis, this glycosignature predicted disease relapse and treatment refractoriness. Peripheral CD4+ T cells from active-disease patients shown a deficiency in branched N-glycans, linked to increased IL-6 production. Glycan supplementation, restoring homeostatic glycosylation profile, led to a decrease in IL-6 levels. This study highlights the biological and clinical importance of glycosylation in IIM immunopathogenesis, providing a potential mechanism for IL-6 production. This pinpoints muscle glycome as promising biomarker for personalized follow-up and a potential target for new therapies in a patients’ subgroup with an ominous evolution.

A ACRL editou, no ano 2000, o documento «Information literacy competency standards for higher education» que padroniza e descreve os objetivos específicos de aprendizagem para estudantes do ensino superior na área da informação (i.e., o quê e onde pesquisar, como definir estratégias de pesquisa, como selecionar e avaliar a informação recuperada, como usar de forma ética e legal a informação). Estes Standards estabeleceram objetivos de aprendizagem para implementar ativamente a literacia da informação na comunidade académica. Reconheceram também o papel dos profissionais da informação que há muito tempo desenvolviam informalmente estas práticas. Ao longo dos anos, muitas disciplinas se inspiraram nos Standards para formular os seus objetivos específicos no processo ensino-aprendizagem, nomeadamente na enfermagem, na psicologia e nas ciências da saúde. Mas os Standards tiveram de evoluir e adaptar-se. Assim como as disciplinas avaliam e acreditam regularmente as suas práticas e currículos, também a prática da literacia da informação teve de ser revista e reavaliada em termos da sua relevância e aplicação. Em 2016, a ACRL adota a nova «Framework for information literacy for higher education», a qual sustenta uma metamorfose. A literacia da informação mantém-se como um padrão de competências integradas que contemplam a descoberta reflexiva da informação, a compreensão de como a informação é produzida e valorizada e o uso da informação na criação ética e legal de novo conhecimento. Mas a nova Framework baseia-se num conjunto de conceitos básicos interconectados, de implementação flexível, ao invés de um conjunto de padrões ou de resultados de aprendizagem. Desenvolve-se em torno de um conjunto de molduras conceptuais (frames), que integram metas e conceitos que os estudantes devem alcançar e ultrapassar de modo a garantir o desenvolvimento de conhecimentos genuínos numa disciplina, profissão ou domínio do conhecimento. E as frames são: a Autoridade, que se constrói e é contextual; a Criação de Informação como um processo; a Informação como valor; a Investigação como processo interativo; a Comunicação Académica como plataforma de diálogo; e a Pesquisa como exploração estratégica. Cada uma destas frames inclui uma secção de prática do conhecimento usada para demonstrar como o domínio do conceito conduz à sua aplicação em novas situações e à criação de mais conhecimento; inclui também um conjunto de disposições que trabalham o saber-estar em processo de aprendizagem. A nova Framework sugere uma abordagem diferente para integrar a literacia da informação na Ciência Aberta, enfatizando o conhecimento sobre a aquisição de competências. Que desafios e implicações práticas tem a nova Framework para a Ciência Aberta em saúde? A sua flexibilidade tem vantagens significativas. Abre o caminho a profissionais da informação em saúde, professores e outros parceiros institucionais para reformular a formação, cursos e até currículos; associa a literacia da informação a iniciativas de sucesso dos estudantes; colabora pedagogicamente na investigação em saúde e envolve os estudantes nesse processo; e amplia o diálogo, dentro e fora do ensino superior, sobre a aprendizagem, a sua avaliação e a comunicação académica.

Introduction – The present study analyzes the scientific production in health in a set of countries that share the history and the Portuguese language, but essentially mutual development goals, based on cooperation and friendship. The aim of the study is to characterize the research developed by the CPLP Member States, based on the scientific production carried out in the health studies, which are indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Method – The information retrieved was organized and analyzed using several bibliometric variables: i) totals of scientific production; (ii) research fields; iii) study typology; iv) selected journals; v) authors' productivity; vi) institutional affiliation of the authors; (vii) international partnerships; (viii) funding agencies; and ix) publication language. Results – The results are of diverse magnitude. Health research represents in some countries half or more of indexed scientific production. There is a predominance of articles, published mostly in quartile 1 journals, followed by meeting abstracts and review articles. Institutional affiliation points to the absolute predominance of Brazilian universities in scientific production, as well as Portuguese universities and hospitals. The geographical proximity of each Member State is shown when establishing institutional partnerships. Funding for research is provided by foundations and scientific institutes in several countries, by the European Commission, and the Ministries of Health. English is the most prominent publication language, followed by Portuguese. Discussion – The analysis seeks to demonstrate how health research has been viewed in each particular country, benefiting the scientific community from the particular commitment of researchers in these countries. Local health studies benefit from more in-depth knowledge of populations, interventions, and outcomes, making it possible to extract new scientific knowledge and new forms of comparability – a directly related impact to the creation of public policies and healthier interventions. Conclusions – This study allows a graphic image of the scientific production of the CPLP Member States in health studies. Some lines are planned for the future: an aggregate analysis of scientific studies and more information resources, an observatory of the CPLP scientific production, and the invitation to further bibliometric studies.

As melhorias na saúde ao longo do tempo têm sido alcançadas mediante um vasto leque de intervenções. Algumas diretamente ligadas ao contexto dos serviços de saúde (programas de vacinação) e outras mediante melhoria das condições de vida e do ambiente. Historicamente, a melhoria substantiva de diversos indicadores de saúde deve-se mais a medidas não médicas relacionadas com as condições de vida, saneamento básico, ambiente, qualidade do ar, condições dos locais de trabalho e de habitação do que a medidas médicas. No entanto, falar de saúde significa, na maioria das vezes, falar de medicina ou de cuidados de saúde e numa altura em que tantas pessoas não têm, ainda, acesso a cuidados de saúde para as suas manifestas necessidades, aumentam as visitas aos médicos de família para procedimentos preventivos, avaliações globais ou parciais de saúde. Os nossos serviços de saúde têm sofrido consideráveis mudanças nos últimos 30 anos e esta é uma delas. A medicina, dita preventiva, ocupa cada vez mais recursos nos Cuidados de Saúde Primários (CSP) e de uma prática dirigida a pessoas e famílias movemo-nos progressivamente para uma medicina centrada em populações. Sendo que esta deslocação da medicina curativa para a medicina preventiva é estimulada pela política de saúde, existindo mesmo incentivos financeiros neste sentido.