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Individuals with chronic pain using opioids: Challenging treatment choices, shared decision-makers, or risk-makers? A critical discourse analysis of Belgian policy documents
No full textChronic pain, defined as pain persisting for more than three months, affects one in four Belgian adults. Treating chronic pain comprises challenges for patients and clinicians as the term encompasses diverse conditions such as fibromyalgia, migraine, and long-term pain without a known biomedical cause. Additionally, growing evidence highlights the limited efficacy of opioids in managing chronic non-cancer pain. This has prompted critical policy changes in pain management, including shifts away from opioid use. This study explores how Belgian policy documents depict patients, healthcare providers, and therapeutic relationships within the context of opioid use in the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. A critical discourse analysis of 32 Belgian Dutch-language policy documents was performed using Fairclough’s framework. This approach examines how language in texts reflects and shapes social power dynamics and ideologies, and allows us to gain insight into the policy discourses surrounding opioid use for chronic pain. Based on our analysis, we suggest that written policy texts about the use of opioids to manage chronic pain are constructed through the deployment of three discourses: a medical authority discourse, a patient empowerment discourse, and a high-risk medication discourse. While all discourses are rooted in the biopsychosocial pain model, they prioritize different aspects of chronic pain management. Whereas the medical authority discourse emphasizes the decision-making role of physicians, the patient empowerment discourse shifts attention to patients’ experiences and preferences. Lastly, the high-risk medication discourse underscores opioids’ addictive potential. These discourses reflect varying perspectives on chronic pain management and have different implications for clinical practice. The findings offer valuable insights into how Belgian policy documents discursively construct or challenge therapeutic relationships and stigma.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Urban peripheries in Portugal: A conceptual and epistemological itinerary
No full textO termo “periferias” entrou definitivamente no léxico académico em Portugal. Até há alguns anos, a literatura académica portuguesa privilegiava o conceito de subúrbio, associando-o aos processos de suburbanização nas suas análises. Esta nova configuração em torno do conceito de periferias urbanas evidencia uma maior pluralidade de abordagens, nem sempre coincidentes, que remetem para novas epistemologias e perspetivas de análise. Neste artigo, fazemos uma revisão da literatura do conceito periferias urbanas ao longo das últimas décadas em Portugal, dialogando com processos mais amplos de segregação socioespacial, racismo institucional e políticas públicas. A literatura brasileira também foi convocada para esse debate, contribuindo para uma compreensão mais informada e relevante do conceito, tanto para a academia quanto para as populações residentes em territórios periféricos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The influence of price dispersion and price fairness on the choice of hotel and OTA: The moderating effect of hotel star classification
No full textThis study applies Prospect Theory to examine how star rating classification affects the relationship between price dispersion, price fairness, and customers' decisions when choosing a hotel and booking channel. Data were collected from 207 hotel customers using Trivago’s metasearch engine in a scenario-based experimental design to test the hypotheses. The findings show that star ratings significantly influence hotel booking choices, with customers favouring cheaper options in wide price dispersion scenarios and more expensive options in narrow price dispersion scenarios. This study contributes to the literature by extending Prospect Theory to metasearch platforms and revealing how star ratings moderate the effects of price dispersion and fairness on the booking channel. The results provide valuable insights for hotel managers and online travel agency practitioners in developing effective marketing and pricing strategies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Capturing homeostatic behaviour in elite football teams: Synchronisation tendencies of cooperative and oppositional dynamics
No full textThis study, investigating the collective homeostasis model, explores the importance of understanding both individual and collective behaviours in analysis of team performance in sport. Rooted in ecological dynamics, this model views collective behaviours in sports teams as a homeostatic process, with structural integrity of performance empowered through synergistic actions at multiple levels. At the microlevel, players interact with their nearest teammates (at a mesolevel) through n-ary interpersonal relations, producing complex behaviours or synergetic patterns observable at the macrolevel. These patterns, and their level of synchronisation, reflect microscopic homeostatic regulation, directly impacting team stability. Here, we sought to capture micro homeostasis effects (reflected in the mesolevel of behaviours) in football teams by analysing synchronisation tendencies of simplice structures, regulated by information that emerges on players’ angles and distance to goal. Frequency of simplice patterning during a game, the influence of ball possession and effects of size and type of simplices on synchronisation tendencies are all crucial to understanding how collective homeostasis is regulated within a competitive sports team, mirroring the synergistic processes that underpin effective teamwork.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Urban renaturalization and regeneration of urban rivers aiming for environmental justice in low-income and racialized communities: The case of Mané Dendê in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil)
No full textA emergência das mudanças climáticas exige políticas públicas efetivas para a governança dos recursos hídricos em ambientes urbanos, visando a garantia da disponibilidade hídrica nas grandes cidades. O estudo realizado no Mané Dendê, um riacho da bacia do rio do Cobre, localizado em Salvador (Bahia, Brasil), teve como objetivo principal avaliar um processo de renaturalização urbana como uma estratégia de recuperação de cursos d’águas em uma área periférica, de baixa renda e desigual, a partir da instrumentalização de soluções baseadas na natureza e infraestruturas verdes-azuis. Os procedimentos metodológicos foram baseados em pesquisa e análise bibliográfica, levantamento de dados estatísticos e cartográficos, bem como em pesquisas de campo. A bacia do rio do Cobre representa o último reduto hídrico com bons índices de qualidade de água em Salvador, sendo a única exceção o seu tributário Mané Dendê. É evidente a importância e urgência da regeneração desse corpo hídrico, para a garantia da disponibilidade hídrica, o aumento da qualidade de água e a oferta de espaços de lazer à comunidade, majoritariamente de baixa renda e racializada. A dimensão técnica da ação de renaturalização do Mané Dendê foi problematizada através de questões referentes à justiça ambiental. As intervenções do Projeto de Requalificação da bacia do Mané Dendê representam uma obra viária que preza pela interconexão de modais de transportes na cidade e desconsidera o aspecto socioambiental, criando mais áreas impermeabilizadas, removendo zonas de mata ciliar e mantendo o rio principal poluído e canalizado, não atende padrões de sustentabilidade.The emergence of climate change requires effective public policies for the governance of water resources in urban environments, with the aim of guaranteeing water availability in large cities. The main objective of the study carried out in Mané Dendê, a stream in the Cobre River basin, located in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), was to evaluate a process of urban renaturalization as a strategy for recovering watercourses in a peripheral, low-income, and unequal area, using nature-based solutions and bluegreen infrastructures. The methodological procedures were based on bibliographical research and analysis, statistical and cartographic data collection, as well as field research. The Cobre River basin represents the last water source with good water quality indices in Salvador, the only exception being its tributary Mané Dendê. The importance and urgency of regenerating this water body are evident, in order to guarantee water availability, increase water quality, and provide leisure spaces for the community, which is mostly low-income and racialized. The technical dimension of the action to renaturalize the Mané Dendê was problematized through questions of environmental justice. The interventions of the Mané Dendê Basin Requalification Project represent a road project that values the interconnection of transport modes in the city and disregards the socioenvironmental aspect, creating more impermeable areas, removing areas of riparian forest, and keeping the main river polluted and channeled, not meeting sustainability standards.publicad
The role of governance in shaping CSR and financial outcomes in Portuguese SMEs
No full textThis study examines the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on financial performance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) investments in Portuguese-listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This research explores how governance structures, such as board size, CEO duality, and board independence, affect both financial outcomes and CSR decisions through the lens of Agency Theory and Stakeholder Theory. Utilizing panel data regression analysis over a 10-year period (2014–2024), the study highlights the positive impact of board size and independence on both financial performance and CSR investment. In contrast, CEO duality is found to negatively influence these outcomes, reflecting its detrimental effect on governance effectiveness. Furthermore, the moderating role of stakeholder pressure is explored, revealing that external pressures from consumers, investors, and regulators enhance the effectiveness of governance mechanisms in promoting sustainability alongside profitability. The findings contribute to the literature by addressing the gap in governance research for SMEs in emerging economies, particularly in Portugal. The study provides actionable insights for corporate leaders and policymakers aiming to enhance governance frameworks that balance financial success with responsible business practices. This research extends Agency Theory and Stakeholder Theory by incorporating the role of stakeholder pressure in shaping governance outcomes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Why do people become a foster parent? Insights from a national study
No full textObjective
Many countries face a shortfall in the number of foster families needed to support maltreated children. This study aims to explore the drivers and barriers to becoming a foster family and to identify clusters derived from these drivers/barriers and their association with sociodemographic factors.
Method
A representative sample of 1,066 Portuguese adults (Mage = 52.76, SD = 14.92) responded to a survey assessing sociodemographic characteristics, awareness, willingness, and intention to foster and two open-ended questions related with enablers and barriers to becoming foster carers.
Results
Three profiles emerged: Material Resources (9.2% of participants), linked to material factors such as housing and economic resources; Personal Traits and Characteristics (23.0% of participants), associating the decision to become a foster family with various individual attributes and capabilities; and Child-centered Motivations (67.8% of participants), where the drivers to become a foster family focused on children and altruistic motivations, and barriers centered on personal and familial fears and threats, and child protection constraints. Differences regarding awareness, willingness and intention to foster, gender, marital status, education, family income, and having children significantly distinguished clusters.
Conclusions
The identification of these profiles, based on enablers and barriers to becoming a foster parent, can inform tailoring recruitment strategies that align with the specific needs and characteristics of prospective foster families.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Art and social change: A methodological proposal for community social work
No full textEste estudio explora la intersección entre el arte y el Trabajo Social Comunitario, proponiendo una metodología innovadora basada en prácticas artísticas. A través de entrevistas semiestructuradas con profesionales del Trabajo Social de la región central de Portugal, se analizó cómo las intervenciones artísticas pueden promover el empoderamiento y la capacitación de individuos y comunidades. Los resultados revelaron que el arte, cuando se utiliza desde una perspectiva social, puede ser una herramienta eficaz para abordar cuestiones como los derechos humanos, la pobreza y la desigualdad. Se identificaron cuatro fases clave en la intervención: diagnóstico, planificación, acción y cierre. La investigación destaca la importancia de la colaboración interdisciplinaria entre trabajadores sociales y artistas, así como la necesidad de considerar el contexto sociocultural de los participantes. Este enfoque metodológico ofrece a los trabajadores sociales una estructura para implementar intervenciones basadas en el arte, potenciando su capacidad para promover el cambio y la justicia social. Además, el estudio subraya la necesidad de una formación más sólida en prácticas artísticas dentro de la educación en Trabajo Social y sugiere futuras líneas de investigación para validar y expandir esta propuesta metodológica en diversos contextos de intervención social.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Prolonged grief and perceived mental and physical health: The mediating role of meaning in life
No full textPast research showed that bereaved individuals with higher levels of prolonged grief symptoms report poorer health. However, research addressing the downstream consequences of prolonged grief to physical health and its potential underlying mechanisms is still limited. This study explored whether meaning in life explained the associations of prolonged grief symptoms with mental and physical health outcomes. In a cross-sectional study (N = 332), participants who experienced the death of a family member, a romantic partner, or a close friend 12 months or longer ago completed an online survey. Results showed that higher levels of prolonged grief symptoms were associated with more depression symptoms, higher perceived loneliness, and lower perceived physical health. These associations were explained by the perception of less meaning in life. Our findings offer insights for researchers and mental health professionals that can contribute to improving health among bereaved adults. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
How music–video metaphors build destination brand resonance: Dyadic affect, meaning access, and cultural cues
No full textShort-form destination videos often rely on music to carry cultural meaning. This paper links Cognitive Metaphor Theory with the circumplex dyad of pleasure and arousal to explain how music–image pairings build destination brand resonance (DBR). Three experiments show that pleasure is the stable route to DBR, arousal helps only under favorable tone, and their effects are additive. A Meaning-Access Prime (MAP) raises both emotions under identical clips and, in Bayesian structural models, also exerts a direct path to DBR, strongest when pleasant tone is low. DBR then predicts destination brand identification and destination consumption intention. We also show a useful state view: Resonant versus Emergent DBR. The framework provides design rules for co-tuning tone, activation, and cultural cues in creator-made clips that improve resonance, identification, and intention.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio