Summary Perceived social support has often been investigated due to its direct and indirect effects in reducing the impact of several risk factors on physical and psychological well-being. Moreover, many studies have revealed a link between social support and positive parenting, which in turn has an impact on children’s well-being. In Portugal, there is a significant lack of studies in this area. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between parents’ perceived social support and children’s psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 409 parents (83.13% mothers) living in the region of Algarve (South of Portugal). The Duke-UNC Functional Social Support and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires were used. Findings The results showed that, on average, families had a social support network of nine people, with a balanced presence of family ( M = 4.25, SD = 3.54) and friends ( M = 4.36, SD = 3.17). Parents reported medium-high levels of confidant and affective support, but instrumental support was lower. However, single-parent families, immigrant families, and divorced parents were found to be more socially isolated and received less support than they needed. Affective social support showed predictive value for child psychological adjustment. Applications These findings suggest that developing universal and selective parental education and support programs that focus on strengthening informal social support networks is needed, especially for vulnerable families. Implications for social workers who intervene with families are discussed.

The study aims to describe the parental use of an online parenting support programme, the ‘Open Window to Family’ (JAF) and to evaluate its impact on perceived children’s quality of life (QoL). This programme makes online resources available to support positive parenting. The study included 363 parents (nintervention group = 142) who completed measures to evaluate their children’s QoL. The results suggest that using the programme for a longer time and accessing more information/services are positively related to the perception of utility but not to the frequency of use. The programme proved to be more useful for specific difficulties and to search for specific information. We found high levels of parental perception of children’s well-being, both physical and psychological, and lower values in social support and relationships with peers. No differences were observed between the total QoL of children in the intervention group and control group. The differences in the dimensions of QoL are due to interaction with the level of education of the mother: mothers with higher education reported higher physical well-being, social support, relationships with peers, and school context. Guidelines are suggested to enhance the accessibility of this type of programme as well as enhance its impact on parents and children.

We critically examined the performance of probabilistic streamflow forecasting in the prediction of flood events in 19 subbasins of the Doce River in Brazil using the Eta (4 members, 5 km spatial resolution) and European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF; 51 members, 32 km resolution) weather forecast models as inputs for the MHD‐INPE hydrological model. We observed that the shapes and orientations of subbasins influenced the predictability of floods due to the orientation of rainfall events. Streamflow forecasts that use the ECMWF data as input showed higher skill scores than those that used the Eta model for subbasins with drainage areas larger than 20,000 km2. Since the skill scores were similar for both models in smaller subbasins, we concluded that the grid size of the weather model could be important for smaller catchments, while the number of members was crucial for larger scales. We also evaluated the performance of probabilistic streamflow forecasting for the severe flood event of late 2013 through a comparison of observations and streamflow estimations derived from interpolated rainfall fields. In many cases, the mean of the ensemble outperformed the streamflow estimations from the interpolated rainfall because the spatial structure of a rainfall event is better captured by weather forecast models.

Purpose: Social support measures have generated empirical evidence of helping relationships and their role in family functioning and well-being. Social support networks affect parental practices and the ways in which families overcome stressful life events. Thus, it is important to gather knowledge about the different forms of support that families can benefit from. The aim of this study was to translate, adapt, and validate the Portuguese version of the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire (FSSQ), a three dimension measure (confidant support, affective support, and instrumental support), Method: 1058 Portuguese parents participated in the study. They were mostly married/cohabiting and employed mothers. The Portuguese version of the FSSQ contained 13 items distributed into 3 subdimensions. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and the study of Pearson correlations. Results: The FSSQ original three-factor structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis and the instrument showed good internal consistency. Confidant support and Instrumental support were negatively associated with Permissive parenting and Affective support was negatively associated with Authoritative parenting and Permissive parenting. All three dimensions showed low and positive correlations with Authoritarian parenting. Discussion: The Portuguese version of the FSSQ met adequate psychometric criteria and can be confidently used in family assessments of social support, whenever a brief, self-administered questionnaire would be useful for community services providers

Downhole carbonate scaling is a major concern in offshore scenarios, where workover operations are associated with very high costs. Intelligent completion concepts are also a requirement for reservoir management optimization. These systems however, introduce several elements in the production string which may constitute hotspots for scaling. The goal of this work is to present pilot scale test facilities and procedures designed to mimic real field situations. Results presented include pH, conductivity and particle size distributions from samples taken along the pipe length and along periodic time intervals. Severe, but representative of some of Brazilian pre-salt scenarios, scaling conditions (S between 3 and 3.4 and pH around 7.5) enable comparative results with a reasonable test volume. Pressure drop on the valve and along the pipe length is also discussed. The scale adherent to the pipe wall and on the valve have been dried and weighted after the experiment. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy have been used for further characterization of the scale structure. The role of flow rates, water composition and valve opening (creating different localized pressure drops) is experimentally investigated. A discussion on scaling mechanisms is presented. Additionally, the use of non-chemical strategies to delay pressure drop increase is also shown. Results show the present experimental set up is able to reproduce hydrodynamics and scaling conditions of downhole scenario. In this work reproducible large scale test procedures have been established. The flow loop allows the evaluation of chemical injection devices besides non chemical mitigation alternatives, including coatings and physical strategies.