The concept of cultural relativism on a philosophical basis and its validity in health sciences, is examined. The concepts of the absolute, the relative and the universal are analysed and a working model for cultural relativism in the health sciences is attained.

Resumen: Se analiza la problemática de las revistas y editoriales depredadoras en el campo de la salud, identificando sus características y los conocimientos adquiridos. Se realizó una revisión de la literatura en salud indexada en ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, SciELO y Web of Science a lo largo de 2020 y 2021 en marzo de 2022. Se constató la creciente preocupación por revistas y editoriales depredadoras en los últimos años, especialmente a partir de 2015 y confirmada a partir de 2017. Las cifras de 2021 y primeros meses de 2022 acompañan esta escalada. Web of Science, Scopus y PubMed son las bases de datos que muestran una clara preocupación por las ciencias de la salud. Como conclusión, la presión por publicar y la dificultad para distinguir la revista legítima de la ilegítima propician un ambiente favorable a la proliferación de publicaciones cuestionables. Los investigadores deben tomar una postura exigente e informada en interés de la confiabilidad de la ciencia, desarrollando buenas prácticas de investigación, evitando la inclusión de datos falsos, plagiados o manipulados, que perjudiquen la calidad de los resultados y conclusiones, influyendo negativamente en la evidencia científica, la práctica clínica y, en última instancia, los pacientes.

Se analiza la problemática de las revistas y editoriales depredadoras en el campo de la salud, identificando sus características y los conocimientos adquiridos. Se realizó una revisión de la literatura en salud indexada en ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, SciELO y Web of Science a lo largo de 2020 y 2021 en marzo de 2022. Se constató la creciente preocupación por revistas y editoriales depredadoras en los últimos años, especialmente a partir de 2015 y confirmada a partir de 2017. Las cifras de 2021 y primeros meses de 2022 acompañan esta escalada. Web of Science, Scopus y PubMed son las bases de datos que muestran una clara preocupación por las ciencias de la salud. Como conclusión, la presión por publicar y la dificultad para distinguir la revista legítima de la ilegítima propician un ambiente favorable a la proliferación de publicaciones cuestionables. Los investigadores deben tomar una postura exigente e informada en interés de la confiabilidad de la ciencia, desarrollando buenas prácticas de investigación, evitando la inclusión de datos falsos, plagiados o manipulados, que perjudiquen la calidad de los resultados y conclusiones, influyendo negativamente en la evidencia científica, la práctica clínica y, en última instancia, los pacientes.

Malaria is an important parasitic disease that affects mostly the African continent. Traditional medicine is very important in Mozambique and traditional healers play a key role in the primary health care services, particularly in rural areas. We aim to report the results of an ethnobotanical survey undertaken in Mogovolas district, northern region of Mozambique. We recorded and identified the medicinal plants used by traditional healers for treatment of malaria, as well as the mode of preparation and administration.

Considering the implementation of an Experimental Design, in any field, the experimenter must pay particular attention and look for the best strategies in the following steps: planning the design selection, conduct the experiments, collect observed data, proceed to analysis and interpretation of results. The focus is on providing both - a deep understanding of the problem under research and a powerful experimental process at a reduced cost. Mainly thanks to the possibility of allowing to separate variation sources, the importance of Experimental Design in Health Sciences is strongly recommended since long time. Particular attention has been devoted to Block Designs and more precisely to Balanced Incomplete Block Designs - in this case the relevance states from the fact that these designs allow testing simultaneously a number of treatments bigger than the block size. Our example refers to a possible study of inter reliability of the Parkinson disease, taking into account the UPDRS (Unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale) in order to test if there are significant differences between the specialists who evaluate the patients performances. Statistical studies on this disease were described for example in Richards et al (1994), where the authors investigate the inter-rater Reliability of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale Motor Examination. We consider a simulation of a practical situation in which the patients were observed by different specialists and the UPDRS on assessing the impact of Parkinson’s disease in patients was observed. Assigning treatments to the subjects following a particular BIBD(9,24,8,3,2) structure, we illustrate that BIB Designs can be used as a powerful tool to solve emerging problems in this area. Once a structure with repeated blocks allows to have some block contrasts with minimum variance, see Oliveira et al. (2006), the design with cardinality 12 was selected for the example. R software was used for computations.

In this study, we optimized the dissociation of synovial tissue biopsies for single-cell omics studies and created a single-cell atlas of human synovium in inflammatory arthritis. The optimized protocol allowed consistent isolation of highly viable cells from tiny fresh synovial biopsies, minimizing the synovial biopsy drop-out rate. The synovium scRNA-seq atlas contained over 100,000 unsorted synovial cells from 25 synovial tissues affected by inflammatory arthritis, including 16 structural, 11 lymphoid, and 15 myeloid cell clusters. This synovial cell map expanded the diversity of synovial cell types/states, detected synovial neutrophils, and broadened synovial endothelial cell classification. We revealed tissue-resident macrophage subsets with proposed matrix-sensing (FOLR2+COLEC12high) and iron-recycling (LYVE1+SLC40A1+) activities and identified fibroblast subsets with proposed functions in cartilage breakdown (SOD2highSAA1+SAA2+SDC4+) and extracellular matrix remodeling (SERPINE1+COL5A3+LOXL2+). Our study offers an efficient synovium dissociation method and a reference scRNA-seq resource, that advances the current understanding of synovial cell heterogeneity in inflammatory arthritis.

Este projeto curricular, inserido no Mestrado em Humanidades Digitais, teve como objetivo principal o desenvolvimento de um website para o projeto europeu PhD4Moz. A criação desta plataforma digital visou a divulgação de informações relevantes sobre o projeto, garantindo uma estética alinhada aos princípios do PhD4Moz. A responsabilidade principal consistiu na conceção e desenvolvimento do site utilizando a plataforma WordPress, abrangendo a seleção e produção de conteúdos adequados. O relatório apresenta uma introdução que descreve o projeto e as tarefas atribuídas. Segue-se uma revisão de literatura que aborda conceitos relacionados com comunicação digital, design de websites educativos, usabilidade, acessibilidade, design minimalista e interface do utilizador, bem como ferramentas digitais para a construção de sites. O relatório também descreve minuciosamente todas as etapas do processo de criação do website, desde a fase inicial de planeamento até à configuração atual, oferecendo uma visão clara do desenvolvimento. Este desenvolvimento resultou numa plataforma integrada e intuitiva que facilita a navegação e o acesso a informações pertinentes sobre o projeto. O site do PhD4Moz emerge como uma contribuição significativa para a disponibilização de recursos informativos e formativos destinados aos estudantes de doutoramento em Moçambique. É fundamental salientar que a interseção com as humanidades digitais reforçou a capacidade do site para satisfazer as necessidades do público-alvo, garantindo um impacto positivo na formação académica e profissional dos doutorandos.

A proteção dos dados pessoais de saúde assume uma enorme relevância atual, sobretudo pela facilidade de acesso e pela possibilidade de divulgação indevida. Nesta obra alude-se à proteção dos dados pessoais de saúde na dupla perspetiva ética e jurídica, num diálogo situado em contexto de saúde. Pretende-se argumentar a favor da necessidade desta proteção em todo o sistema de saúde, invocando os fundamentos éticos e jurídicos mais relevantes.

Increased recognition of outcomes, or competency-based education, has evolved across higher education on health sciences. However, there is significant diversity in the current study of Portuguese programmes. Considering learning outcomes (LO) as indicators of knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and the understanding that the student will gain as a result of an educational experience, this study aims to explore which LO are emphasised on the study programmes of health sciences in Portugal. Through a qualitative methodology, carried out through MAXQDA software, all LO of all Portuguese health sciences study programmes submitted to quality accreditation to the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) since 2009 until 2016 were analysed. Although specific knowledge was the most referenced LO, transversal skills were also emphasized, such as critical and reflexive analysis/critical thinking, research, ability to organize and plan and professional ethics. Significant diferences were found between LO selection when the analysis was made by comparing the diverse study programmes. This required assortment of knowledge and skills seems to reflect not only the specificities of each health science programme but also the challenging demands on professionals in the 21st century, along with the necessary changes imposed by society, fostering intercultural understanding, tolerance, mutual respect and an ethic of global citizenship and shared responsibility, crucial enablers of educational development for all in the scope of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.