The dropout or evasion rates in higher education are now a social and institutional concern, justifying the implementation of public policies to prevent this phenomenon. These policies need studies on the most determinant variables of the risk of dropout. The main objective of this study is to analyze the student’s persistence in undergraduate courses, and the relationship with the student’s previous school trajectory and with the conditions of entrance into higher education, controlling for students’ sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender and age. We applied multilevel logistic regression models to data of 2.697 freshmen enrolled in a Portuguese public university in the academic year 2015/16. The results suggest that failure in basic education (ISCED 2) has a long-term effect. According to the estimates obtained, students who declare not having failed in basic education have odds ratio of persistence 2.7 times higher than students who declare having failed in basic education. The conditions of student’s admission to the course he/she attends are relevant variables to persistence in Higher Education, for example, whether s/he was admitted to her/his first option course and the student’s university entrance score. The results also show that older and male students have lower probability of persistence.

The purpose of this article is to characterize and contribute to the debate on the democratization of Portuguese higher education, both in terms of access and the performance of students enrolled in a public university. The analyses concern the sociodemographic characteristics and schooling trajectory of the 2,697 students enrolled for the first time in the University of Minho in the academic year 2015/16. The relationships between such characteristics and the choice of program, expectations regarding higher education, the criteria of admission, and the association with their permanence and performance in the first year of studies are explored as well. Several statistical tests were applied, such as those based on multivariate analysis of variance, chi-squared test for the independence between variables, or the tStudent test for the comparison of means of two independent samples. Results suggest that student’s gender, socio-cultural background and schooling trajectory are related to the choice of the programe, university entrance score and the entrance option. The multivariate analysis of variance of student’s grade point average at the end of the first year suggests the influence of the interaction between the fixed term of scientific-disciplinary area of the program attended and the program option of access to higher education. We did not find any statistically significant association between socio-cultural background and permanence in higher education; i.e, the socio-cultural origin of the students does not seem to influence the decision to abandon, suspend or transfer program, at least during their first year of studies. Our findings suggest student’s resilience and/or institutional action meaning a step further on the path for social equity in the Portuguese higher education.

Objective: The main objective of the present study was to examine the associations between coach-created task-involving climate and athletes' intentions to continue practicing sport, through a serial mediation analysis that included basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPN), self-determined motivation (SDM) and enjoyment. Methods: Seven-hundred and ninety-nine elite swimmers (450 males, 349 females; aged 12-22 years, M = 16.65, SD = 2.83) participated in the present study. Groups were created according to age, years of experience, and gender. Results: Serial mediation analysis provided support for the proposed model where BPN's and enjoyment represent the most important mediators between task-involving climate and athletes' intentions to continue sport practice. Conclusion: Enjoyment stands out as the most relevant predictor of intention to persist and as a significant mediator in the relation between task-involvement climate, BPN, SDM, and long-term sports practice. The task-involving climate created by coaches appears to set in motion a sequence where the satisfaction of basic needs and SDM lead to more enjoyment and increased persistence among young athletes.

This study examined whether the motivational climate, the satis/action o/ basic psychological needs, sel/-determined motivation, and enjoyment could explain why swimmers persisted/or a periodo/six years and whether it could predict their intentions to continue practicing swimming one more year. Multigroup analysis across gender, age-groups and years o/ experience were also analysed. 799 swimmers (450 males, 349females), with ages between 12 and 22 years, completed a survey that included the proposed variables. The results support the adequacy o/ the/inal model in explaining the swimmers persistence aver a period o/ six years and their intention to persist one more year. In sum, when coaches create a taskinvolving climate, this climate is conducive to the satis/action o/ basic needs satis- /action. This, in turn, leads to more self-determined motivation, more enjoyment and more intention to continue the practice o/one's sport, independently o/gender, age-groups and years o/ experience.

A síndrome diarreica é considerada um grave problema de saúde pública em todo o mundo e é considerada uma das principais causas de morbidade e mortalidade nos países em desenvolvimento. A patogênese de Escherichia coli enteroagregativa (EAEC) permanece incerta e tem sido investigada extensivamente pela utilização de modelos in vitro e, em menor grau, de modelos ex vivo. A competência de EAEC para aderir ao epitélio intestinal do hospedeiro é um papel fundamental para a colonização e o desenvolvimento da doença. Além disso, EAEC pode invadir células intestinais e causar alterações graves no epitélio intestinal. O presente estudo investigou a interação de cepas EAEC invasoras isoladas de diarreia infantil com mucosa ileal e colônica de coelho ex vivo. As cepas EAEC também foram avaliadas quanto à capacidade de persistência intracelular associada à produção de citocinas na linhagem intestinal T84. A viabilidade celular e ocorrência de apoptose/necrose na linhagem T84 também foi avaliada. Os ensaios de aderência foram realizados com as cepas co-incubadas com fragmentos de intestino de coelho durante um período de 6 horas e foram analisadas por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV). A persistência intracelular e a produção de citocinas por ELISA em “sanduíche” foram avaliadas em 24 horas e as microscopias por contraste de fase e de fluorescência e citometria de fluxo foram conduzidas após 6, 16 e 24 horas de interação com células T84 infectadas. Através da MEV, observamos que todas as cepas de EAEC aderiram a ambos os sítios intestinais (íleo e cólon) com o padrão de aderência agregativo típico de "tijolos empilhados", porém o maior grau de aderência foi observado na mucosa colônica. As taxas de sobrevivência de EAEC H92/3, I49/3 e 042 foram 1,4x103, 3,2x103 e 0,5x103 UFC/ mL, respectivamente. Todas as cepas EAEC testadas induziram quantidades significativas de IL-8, IL-6 e TNF-α em comparação com células T84 não infectadas. A microscopia de contraste de fase mostrou perda de viabilidade em células infectadas por períodos de 16 horas. Por microscopia de fluorescência, observamos que as células infectadas com EAEC H92/3 e I49/3 apresentaram danos nos núcleos. Além disso, por citometria de fluxo, nossos dados revelaram que EAEC provocou apoptose tardia e necrose de células T84. Esses dados mostraram que as cepas de EAEC invasoras podem ter um alto tropismo para o cólon humano. As cepas invasoras podem sobreviver dentro da linhagem celular intestinal, induzindo uma resposta imune proinflamatória e desencadeando processos apoptóticos e/ou necróticos em células T84. As diferentes vias de virulência investigadas no presente estudo contribuem para o entendimento do mecanismo de patogenicidade de EAEC invasoras.

Demersal fish assemblages from trawl surveys in the Rio de la Plata estuary and its inner continental shelf were analyzed from 1975 to 1995. The first two factors of Principal Component Analysis explained 48% of the variance in species distribution, and they are consistent with the results of a cluster analysis. The analysis indicated the existence of three spatially and temporally distinct fish assemblages: internal and external estuarine and inner continental shelf (Uruguayan coastal assemblages). These assemblages were persistent considering the environmental characteristics and their species composition. Despite the changes registered in the species density during the period surveyed, the fish assemblages tend to persist over time. It was demonstrated that the assemblages can be considered as open systems and that there exists a reciprocal flow of organisms between adjacent associations. However, each assemblage showed high spatial and temporal persistence in accordance with the environmental characteristics of the system analyzed. Therefore, and according to the multispecies fisheries operating in the system, each assemblage defined could be considered a unit of management.

After the widespread adoption of flexible exchange rate regime since 1973, the volatility of the exchange rate has increased, as a consequence of greater trade openness and financial integration among countries. Thus, it has become difficult to find concrete evidence of the purchasing power parity hypothesis. This study investigates the possibility of a fall in the persistence of the real exchange rate as a consequence of the financial and commercial integration by employing monthly dataset provided by the International Monetary Fund. Beginning with an exploratory data analysis, and by combining two complementary unit root tests, the fractional coefficient d was estimated employing the bias-reduced estimator on a sample of 20 countries over the period ranging from 1975 to 2011. As a main novelty, this study applies a bias-reduced log-periodogram regression estimator instead of the traditional method proposed by GPH which eliminates the first and higher orders biases of the GPH estimator by a data-dependent plug-in method for selecting the number of frequencies to minimize asymptotic mean-squared error (MSE). Additionally, this study also estimates a moving window of fifteen years in order to observe the path of the fractional coefficient. No evidence was found of a statistically significant change in the persistence of the real exchange rate.