Due to the challenge of operating within an economically strained healthcare budget, Portuguese health authorities convened with dialysis providers and agreed on a framework to change from a fee-for-service reimbursement modality to a capitation payment system for hemodialysis. This article reviews the components of the agreed capitation package implemented in 2008 as well as the necessary preparatory work undertaken by a for-profit 34-unit dialysis network (approx. 4,200 patients) to cope with the introduction of this system. Furthermore, trends in clinical quality indicators and in resource management are reviewed for 3 years immediately following capitation introduction. Here, improvements were observed over time for the specified clinical targets. Simultaneously, costs controllable by the physician could be reduced. As more countries convert to a capitation or bundled payment system for hemodialysis services, this article offers insight into the scope of the necessary preparatory work and the possible consequences in terms of costs and treatment quality.

Research on career indecision has emphasized the need to distinguish between normative indecision, which corresponds to a developmentally-appropriate state, and indecisiveness, a persistent problem in making decisions across multiple dimensions. This distinction is important in order to design appropriate interventions. These two types of indecision are related with two dimensions (decidedundecided and decisiveness-indecisiveness) that, if conceptualized as orthogonal, result in a diagnostic scheme with four groups (high or low in career decidedness and high or low in indecisiveness). The aim of this study was to test whether the four groups could be distinguished from each other with regard to cognitive and affective variables that have been used in career indecision research. A descriptive discriminant analysis was employed with a sample of secondary school students. The grouping variable effects of two significant functions are described and implications for career counseling and future research are discussed.

This study investigates the role of the polymeric binder on the properties and performance of an intumescent coating. Waterborne resins of different types (vinylic, acrylic, and styrene-acrylic) were incorporated in an intumescent paint formulation, and characterized extensively in terms of thermal degradation behavior, intumescence thickness, and thermal insulation. Thermal microscopy images of charred foam development provided further information on the particular performance of each type of coating upon heating. The best foam expansion and heat protection results were obtained with the vinyl binders. Rheological measurements showed a complex evolution of the viscoelastic characteristics of the materials with temperature. As an example, the vinyl binders unexpectedly hardened significantly after thermal degradation. The values of storage moduli obtained at the onset of foam blowing (melamine decomposition) were used to explain different intumescence expansion behaviors.

Compreender a complexidade da problemática do in/sucesso e/ou do abandono escolar, tem sido uma das preocupações dominantes da investigação nas últimas décadas, sendo não só objeto do interesse geral, como também tem vindo a municiar os discursos críticos em relação à dita escola de massas. Neste sentido, a presente investigação incide na análise dos preditores familiares e individuais do rendimento escolar de adolescentes. Participaram neste estudo 222 adolescentes com idades compreendidas entre os 14 e os 16 anos, que frequentavam o 9º ano de escolaridade. Os dados foram recolhidos em escolas secundárias, através do Questionário de Estilos Educativos Parentais e da Escala de Exploração e Investimento Vocacional. O nível de escolaridade das mães, a monitorização parental e o investimento vocacional revelaram-se preditores do rendimento escolar. Os resultados são discutidos à luz de uma abordagem psicossocial sendo retiradas implicações para a intervenção psicológica. Palavras-chave: Desenvolvimento vocacional, Estilos educativos parentais, Rendimento escolar.O insucesso escolar e o abandono precoce da escola são, direta e indiretamente, o resultado de uma sociedade que, no desenho das suas políticas sociais e educativas, não tem realizado os investimentos adequados e necessários para esbater o fenómeno de discriminação oriunda dos contextos mais vulneráveis do ponto de vista social, cultural e económico. Com a globalização, as sociedades que não conseguem travar este fenómeno, tornam-se cada vez menos competitivas e menos influentes. Por conseguinte, há que investir na educação de forma a reduzir o insucesso e consequente abandono escolar, tornando a sociedade mais instruída e qualificada. Para que isso seja possível, importa perceber quais os fatores determinantes e geradores de in/sucesso e abandono escolar.A presente investigação encontra-se inserida num estudo longitudinal iniciado em 2007, e que pretende estudar o percurso escolar de alunos entre o 7º e o 11º anos de escolaridade, analisando decisões e projetos vocacionais e identificando os determinantes do sucesso e insucesso escolar e/ou do abandono da escola. No presente estudo pretende-se identificar as variáveis preditores do rendimento escolar dos alunos, no 9º ano de escolaridade.À luz do modelo bioecológico (Bronfenbrenner, 2001(Bronfenbrenner, /2005, os fatores intra-individuais e os fatores inter-individuais (que se referem ao ambiente envolvente, mais ou menos próximo), 235Os dados apresentados foram recolhidos no segundo momento do estudo longitudinal "Percursos escolares na adolescência: Determinantes socio-cognitivo-motivacionais" desenvolvido no âmbito do Centro de Estudos Euro-Regionais (CEER), pelo Centro de Psicologia da Universidade do Porto, coordenado pelo último autor e foram objeto da tese de Mestrado em Temas de Psicologia na FPCEUP do primeiro autor.A correspondência relativa a este artigo deverá ser enviada para:

Higher education institutions intend to provide young people with a range of capabilities and skills that will prepare them to face transition into the labor market. In modern societies, however, marked by structural unemployment, forms of temporary work prevail, offering increasingly unstable conditions, lower security, and fewer social rights. At this critical historical and social juncture, it becomes important for both the research and social agenda to understand the meanings Portuguese higher education students attribute their transition from education to work. In Study 1, based on a sample of 712 Portuguese higher education students, words associated with the transition from higher education to work were collected and they were grouped by their semantic proximity. These semantic groups served to build items for a first version of the Scale of the Meanings of Transition from Higher Education to Work (SMTHEW). Study 2 was developed based on this version, with a sample of 546 participants. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a version of the SMTHEW consisting of four subscales (Professional Achievement, Uncertainty, Unemployment, and Professional Responsibility) with psychometric qualities we considered appropriate. In Study 3, based on data from 505 participants, a confirmatory factor analysis of the SMTHEW was conducted, defining thus its final version, which revealed appropriate levels of adjustment to the proposed model.