Suchergebnisse

Through a walking ethnography exercise, we intend to present an ethnography of the cosmetic offer aimed at depigmenting the skin in the heart of Lisbon, focusing on a fragment of the city that brings together different proposals and aesthetic products: Chinese spas, beauty salons and African hairdressers, shops of the so-called "ethnic" trade linked to immigrants and Portuguese descendants of Asian or African populations. We defined this tour as a "whitening path" – ironically paraphrasing the title of one of Michael Jackson's most famous books, Paths towards a clearing (1989). Considering the body as a project under construction, we intend to show that the imaginary and desires related to the consumption of these treatments, as well as the beauty standards conveyed by the marketing of skin whitening products, reflect and reproduce social variables of gender, class and race. We also want to highlight how most whitening products, sold in the city center, are prohibited by European cosmetics regulation legislation due to the high concentrations of toxic substances. These substances – which circulate freely in the networks of informal commerce – can be very harmful to the consumers' health, carrying severe dermatological risks ; Por meio de um exercício de walking ethnography, pretendemos apresentar uma etnografia da oferta cosmética destinada à despigmentação da pele no coração de Lisboa, focando num fragmento da cidade que junta diferentes propostas e produtos estéticos: spas chineses, salões de beleza e cabeleireiros africanos, lojas do comércio dito "étnico" ligado a imigrantes e portugueses descendentes de populações asiáticas ou africanas. Definimos esse passeio como "caminho do branqueamento" – parafraseando ironicamente o título de um dos mais famosos livros de Michael Jackson, Paths towards a clearing (1989). Considerando o corpo como um projeto em construção, pretendemos mostrar que os imaginários e os desejos ligados ao consumo desses tratamentos, assim como os padrões de beleza veiculados pelo marketing dos produtos de clareamento da pele, refletem e reproduzem variáveis sociais de género, classe e raça. Queremos também evidenciar como a maior parte dos produtos branqueadores, vendidos no centro da cidade, são proibidos pela legislação europeia de regulamentação de cosméticos, devido às altas concentrações de substâncias tóxicas. Essas substâncias, que circulam livremente nas redes do comercio informal, podem ser muito prejudiciais para a saúde dos consumidores, comportando severos riscos dermatológicos.

Com o intuito de fugir ao pagamento dos tributos, alguns contribuintes procuram meios lícitos e ilícitos, de reduzir o montante a ser recolhido, seja através da elisão fiscal, visando obter uma legítima economia de tributos, seja através da evasão fiscal, que seria o ato concomitante ou posterior à incidência tributária, onde são utilizados meios ilícitos para fugir ao pagamento. O fenômeno da evasão fiscal tem sido estudado há muito, porém mais recentemente também sob o prisma da moral e da ética fiscal. Alguns estudos contemporâneos apontam que a evasão fiscal pode ser considerada ética em algumas circunstâncias e antiética sob outras circunstâncias, visão que também é partilhada na literatura recente. O presente estudo utilizou um instrumento de pesquisa anteriormente aplicado em vários países, e foi adaptado com o objetivo de analisar a Percepção da Ética Fiscal dos contribuintes na visão do Auditor Fiscal no Estado do Ceará. As conclusões apontam para certa relatividade ética com relação à justificativa para a evasão fiscal, embora alguns argumentos apareçam com mais intensidade que outros, os resultados também demonstraram que a evasão fiscal encontra certa justificativa quando o sistema fiscal é percebido como injusto. A Corrupção governamental não encontrou justificativa ética pelos respondentes da pesquisa, em contradição com o resultado encontrado em outros inquéritos. A ampliação do universo de aplicação dessa pesquisa é recomendada para alargamento da visão exploratória sobre o tema.

Vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) it is often a suppurative lesion that, in Portugal, represents the main cause of total condemnation of slaughtered finishing pigs. Based on the EU Meat Inspection legislation, meat from generalized VO cases presenting signs of pyemia should be declared unfit for human consumption. For that reason, the main objective of this study is to establish a classification scheme to differentiate between localized and generalized VO cases using macroscopic findings and validate it based on the presence of pyemia. To assist in, a combination of macroscopic characteristics of gross lesions (e.g., presence of pyaemia-related lesions (PRL), acute/chronic characteristics of VO) was used to create a classification scheme to differentiate between localized and generalized VO cases. The scheme was applied to 40 VO cases that had been totally condemned in an undifferentiated way. In those 40 cases, histopathological analysis was used to validate acute/chronic macro-criteria, and microbiological analysis was performed to identify the pyemia cases. From the 40 selected VO cases, 20 were macroscopically classified as chronic and 20 as acute. Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ = 0.80; p < 0.001), revealed a substantial agreement between macroscopic and histopathology classification. Microbiological analyses identified 13 pyemia cases (13/40; 32.5%). Among those, 12 were macroscopically classified as acute, this association being highly significant (p < 0.001). By using the proposed VO classification scheme, 14 possible cases out of 40 could have been spared from total condemnation. This scheme can be used to harmonize the classification of VO and meat inspection decisions in Portuguese abattoirs. The output would lead to avoidance of unnecessary carcasses condemnation (food waste/economic losses), under an evidence-based approach, without compromising food safety and public health as demanded by the EU Meat Inspection legislation.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Despite advances in modern therapeutic strategies, cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide. Therefore, there is a constant need to develop more efficient anticancer targeting strategies. The anticancer therapeutic proprieties of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds have been reported for several years, making natural extracts and/or compounds derived from these a promising source of novel anticancer agents. Sand dune plants are subjected to severe environmental stresses, leading to the development of adaptations, including the production of secondary metabolites with a wide range of bioactivities, such as: anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiseptic, hypoglycaemic, hypotensive, antinociceptive, antioxidant and anticancer. Aim of the study: The anticancer potential of sand dune plants remains under-investigated, so this research describes the characterisation of the composition of bioactive EOs from sand-dune plants of Peniche (Portugal), and assessment of their activity in vitro and potential mechanism of action. Materials and methods: EOs were extracted from six sand-dune species of plants from Peniche sand dunes: Crithmum maritimum L., Seseli tortuosum L., Artemisia campestris subsp. maritima (DC.) Arcang., Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Guss.) Parl., Otanthus maritimus (L.) Hoffmanns. & Link, and Eryngium maritimum L. EOs composition was fully characterised chemically using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The assessment of anticancer activity and mechanism of action was performed in vitro using breast and colorectal cancer 2D and 3D spheroid cell line models, through cell proliferation assay, western blotting analysis, and cell cycle analysis. Results: EOs from the majority of the species tested (S. tortuosum, A. campestris subsp. maritima, O. maritimus, and E. maritimum) were mainly composed by hydrocarbon compounds (sequisterpenes and monoterpenes), showing antiproliferative activity in both 2D and 3D models. EO extracted from S. tortuosum and O. maritimus were identified as having the lowest IC50 values for both cell lines when compared with the other species tested. Furthermore, this antiproliferative activity was associated with increased p21 expression and induction of apoptosis. Conclusions: The present study suggests that EOs extracted from S. tortuosum and O. maritimus present promising cytotoxic properties. Further evaluation of the extracts and their key components as potential anticancer agents should therefore be explored. ; We would like to thank the support provided by the following funders: Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) through the University of Hull, U.K.; Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal), through the Strategic Projects: UID/MAR/04292/2019 (MARE), UID/NEU/04539/2013 and UID/NEU/04539/2019 (CNC.IBILI), UIDB/ 04539/2020 and UIDP/04539/2020 (CIBB); Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019); Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) project POINT4PAC (SAICTPAC/0019/ 2015-LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-016405); EASME Blue Labs project AMALIA (EASME/EMFF/2016/1.2.1.4/03/SI2.750419), European Union; Integrated Programme of SR&TD "SmartBioR" (reference Centro-01-0145-FEDER- 000018), co-funded by Centro (2020) program, Portugal 2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion