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Flowering time is a complex trait that controls adaptation of plants to their local environment in the outcrossing species Zea mays (maize). We dissected variation for flowering time with a set of 5000 recombinant inbred lines (maize Nested Association Mapping population, NAM). Nearly a million plants were assayed in eight environments but showed no evidence for any single large-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Instead, we identified evidence for numerous small-effect QTLs shared among families; however, allelic effects differ across founder lines. We identified no individual QTLs at which allelic effects are determined by geographic origin or large effects for epistasis or environmental interactions. Thus, a simple additive model accurately predicts flowering time for maize, in contrast to the genetic architecture observed in the selfing plant species rice and Arabidopsis.

The purpose of this article is to present the development and validation of a Community Resilience Scale for Youth (CRS-Y) among a Portuguese sample of nearly 4000 young people growing up in regions on the border with Spain. The scale was developed for young people to assess their perception of the resilience of regional communities in terms of positive development and purposeful experiences for young people. Resilient communities, under a social ecological approach, are those able to move forward on social change and transformation. This concept is especially remarkable in more challenging contexts such as border regions of mainland Portugal which are characterised by economic, social, educational, and cultural disadvantages while discovering possibilities of resilience through promising local dynamics. A multi-step approach was used to develop this scale of 12-item scale. Items were generated based on an in-depth literature review and research previously conducted with young people in these contexts. The overall sample was randomly divided into two subsamples of 1828 and 1735 young people each. Principal component analysis was performed with one of the subsamples and yielded a three-factor structure, explaining 61.5% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis performed on the second showed good fit indexes. Furthermore, internal consistency of the three proposed components, gauged either by Cronbach’s alpha or McDonald’s omega, indicated good reliability. Given the results, the CRS-Y is a valid and reliable tool showing adequate psychometric properties. This scale will be useful for schools and policy makers at the local level. Indicators such as the promotion of opportunities to participate and be recognised, collective trust and the promotion of shared values and protection are relevant in assessing regional communities’ resilience and informing youth policies.

Key message A replicated experiment on genomic selection in a maize landrace provides valuable insights on the design of rapid cycling recurrent pre-breeding schemes and the factors contributing to their success. The genetic diversity of landraces is currently underutilized for elite germplasm improvement. In this study, we investigated the potential of rapid cycling genomic selection for pre-breeding of a maize ( Zea mays L.) landrace population in replicated experiments. We trained the prediction model on a dataset (N = 899) composed of three landrace-derived doubled-haploid (DH) populations characterized for agronomic traits in 11 environments across Europe. All DH lines were genotyped with a 600 k SNP array. In two replications, three cycles of genomic selection and recombination were performed for line per se performance of early plant development, a major sustainability factor in maize production. From each cycle and replication, 100 DH lines were extracted. To evaluate selection response, the DH lines of all cycles and both replications (N = 688) were evaluated for per se performance of selected and unselected traits in seven environments. Selection was highly successful with an increase of about two standard deviations for traits under directional selection. Realized selection response was highest in the first cycle and diminished in following cycles. Selection gains predicted from genomic breeding values were only partially corroborated by realized gains estimated from adjusted means. Prediction accuracies declined sharply across cycles, but only for traits under directional selection. Retraining the prediction model with data from previous cycles improved prediction accuracies in cycles 2 and 3. Replications differed in selection response and particularly in accuracies. The experiment gives valuable insights with respect to the design of rapid cycling genomic selection schemes and the factors contributing to their success.

Within the framework of current educational policies on citizenship education, which promote the appraisal of the local dimension of educational activities as a direct context for the development of situated citizenship practices (AR, 2018), this article examines community-based approaches to citizenship education in rural schools and communities located in the border regions of mainland Portugal. From a theoretical perspective, the study adopts a maximalist conception of citizenship education, emphasising its experiential nature and community orientation, and draws on place-based education approaches. These perspectives place local realities, collective action, and the involvement of community actors at the centre of citizenship formation. Methodologically, we use data from a mixed-methods study conducted in 29 schools, including documentary analysis of schools’ educational projects, activity programmes and citizenship education strategies, semi-structured interviews with teachers coordinating citizenship education, and a questionnaire survey distributed to secondary education students. The results reveal a variety of initiatives and areas of community engagement led by schools, aimed at promoting well-being and valuing local cultures and realities. At the same time, the study identifies the different roles played by community actors – including schools, stakeholders, and young people – in fostering community well-being and social cohesion. En el marc de les polítiques educatives contemporànies relatives a l’educació per a la ciutadania, que promouen la valoració de la dimensió local de les activitats educatives com a context directe per al desenvolupament de pràctiques situades de ciutadania (AR, 2018), aquest article examina enfocaments comunitaris d’educació per a la ciutadania en escoles rurals i comunitats de les regions frontereres del Portugal continental. Des d’una perspectiva teòrica, s’adopta una concepció maximalista de l’educació per a la ciutadania, que en destaca el caràcter experiencial i l’orientació comunitària, i que s’inspira en els plantejaments de l’educació basada en el lloc. Aquests enfocaments situen al centre les realitats locals, l’acció col·lectiva i la implicació d’actors comunitaris en els processos formatius de ciutadania. Metodològicament, l’estudi es fonamenta en un enfocament de mètodes mixtos aplicat en 29 escoles, que va incloure l’anàlisi documental de projectes educatius, programes d’activitats i estratègies de ciutadania; entrevistes semiestructurades amb docents coordinadors d’educació per a la ciutadania; i un qüestionari adreçat a estudiants d’educació secundària postobligatòria. Els resultats evidencien una àmplia diversitat d’iniciatives i modalitats de participació comunitària impulsades per les escoles, orientades a promoure el benestar i a valorar les cultures locals. Així mateix, s’identifiquen els diferents rols exercits per les escoles, els agents comunitaris i els joves en la promoció del benestar col·lectiu i en l’enfortiment de la cohesió social. En el marco de las políticas educativas contemporáneas relativas a la educación para la ciudadanía, que promueven la valorización de la dimensión local de las actividades escolares como contexto privilegiado para el desarrollo de prácticas situadas de ciudadanía (AR, 2018), este artículo analiza los enfoques comunitarios de educación ciudadana implementados en escuelas rurales y en comunidades de las zonas fronterizas del Portugal continental. Desde una perspectiva teórica, se adopta una concepción maximalista de la educación para la ciudadanía, la cual subraya su carácter experiencial y su orientación hacia la comunidad, inspirándose en los planteamientos de la educación basada en el lugar. Dichos enfoques sitúan en el centro las realidades locales, la acción colectiva y la participación de actores comunitarios en los procesos formativos. En términos metodológicos, el estudio se fundamenta en un enfoque de métodos mixtos aplicado en 29 escuelas, que comprendió el análisis documental de proyectos educativos, programas de actividades y estrategias institucionales de ciudadanía; la realización de entrevistas semiestructuradas con docentes coordinadores de esta área; y la aplicación de un cuestionario dirigido a estudiantes de educación secundaria. Los resultados evidencian una amplia diversidad de iniciativas y modalidades de participación comunitaria promovidas por las escuelas, orientadas a fomentar el bienestar y a poner en valor las culturas locales. Asimismo, se identifican los distintos roles desempeñados por las instituciones escolares, los agentes comunitarios y los jóvenes en la promoción del bienestar colectivo y en el fortalecimiento de la cohesión social.

Key messageModel training on data from all selection cycles yielded the highest prediction accuracy by attenuating specific effects of individual cycles. Expected reliability was a robust predictor of accuracies obtained with different calibration sets.The transition from phenotypic to genome-based selection requires a profound understanding of factors that determine genomic prediction accuracy. We analysed experimental data from a commercial maize breeding programme to investigate if genomic measures can assist in identifying optimal calibration sets for model training. The data set consisted of six contiguous selection cycles comprising testcrosses of 5968 doubled haploid lines genotyped with a minimum of 12,000 SNP markers. We evaluated genomic prediction accuracies in two independent prediction sets in combination with calibration sets differing in sample size and genomic measures (effective sample size, average maximum kinship, expected reliability, number of common polymorphic SNPs and linkage phase similarity). Our results indicate that across selection cycles prediction accuracies were as high as 0.57 for grain dry matter yield and 0.76 for grain dry matter content. Including data from all selection cycles in model training yielded the best results because interactions between calibration and prediction sets as well as the effects of different testers and specific years were attenuated. Among genomic measures, the expected reliability of genomic breeding values was the best predictor of empirical accuracies obtained with different calibration sets. For grain yield, a large difference between expected and empirical reliability was observed in one prediction set. We propose to use this difference as guidance for determining the weight phenotypic data of a given selection cycle should receive in model retraining and for selection when both genomic breeding values and phenotypes are available.

As mudanças decorrentes dos recentes avanços tecnológicos, no âmbito da indústria 4.0, impulsionadas quer pelo rápido desenvolvimento das TIC, quer pela pandemia de COVID-19 que, entre outros, levou a que uma parte substancial da população vivesse numa situação de teletrabalho, levam-nos a refletir sobre o possível impacto destas mudanças no mundo do trabalho e no exercício da atividade de formador/a. A partir da análise do contexto industrial português e de 1.586 respostas de formadores/as nacionais a um inquérito por questionário, recolhidas entre dezembro de 2020 e abril de 2021, procurámos auscultar as suas perceções sobre as principais mudanças na sua função profissional decorrentes principalmente da 4.ª revolução industrial (i4.0). Conclui-se que há uma distribuição desigual das indústrias pelo território nacional, o que poderá explicar impactos desiguais no mundo do trabalho e respetivas diferenças nas práticas de formação que podem, no entanto, ser mitigadas através do uso das tecnologias inerentes e decorrentes da própria indústria 4.0.

Enquadramento: A crise pandémica da COVID-19 acarretou mudanças na vida académica dos estudantes do ensino superior, o que poderá afetar o seu bem-estar psicológico. Objetivo: Analisar a relação entre estratégias de coping utilizadas e o bem-estar psicológico em estudantes de enfermagem durante a quarentena pela COVID-19. Metodologia: Estudo transversal, descritivo-correlacional, utilizando uma amostra de 136 estudantes. Colheita de dados online, com recurso à Escala de Medida de Manifestação de Bem-estar Psicológico e à Brief COPE. Resultados: Os estudantes dos últimos anos de curso utilizam mais frequentemente a estratégia de coping suporte instrumental (p = 0,015) e emocional (p = 0,009), apresentam ainda, maiores níveis de bem-estar psicológico (p = 0,012). As alterações no rendimento familiar estão associadas ao bem-estar psicológico (p = 0,024), assim como as estratégias de coping religião (r = 0,36; p ≤ 0,01), reinterpretação positiva (r = 0,47; p ≤ 0,01) e humor (r = 0,37; p ≤ 0,01). Conclusão: As estratégias de coping adotadas pelos estudantes parecem estar relacionadas com o bem-estar psicológico durante a quarentena. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought about changes in the lives of higher education students that may influence their psychological well-being. Objective: To analyze the association between nursing students’ coping strategies and their psychological well-being during the COVID-19 quarantine. Methodology: Cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study using a convenience sample of 136 students. Data were collected online using the Portuguese version of the Échelle de Mesure des Manifestations du Bien-être Psychologique and the Brief COPE. Results: Students in the last years of their undergraduate studies used the instrumental support (p = 0.015) and emotional support (p = 0.009) coping strategies more often and had higher levels of psychological well-being (p = 0.012). Psychological well-being is associated with household income changes (p = 0.024), as well as with religion (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01), positive reframing (r = 0.47; p ≤ 0.01), and humor (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) coping strategies. Conclusion: Students’ coping strategies seem to be associated with their psychological well-being during the COVID-19 quarantine. Marco contextual: La crisis provocada por la pandemia de la COVID-19 produjo cambios en la vida académica de los estudiantes de educación superior, que pueden afectar su bienestar psicológico. Objetivo: Analizar la relación entre las estrategias de afrontamiento utilizadas y el bienestar psicológico en estudiantes de enfermería durante la cuarentena por la COVID-19. Metodología: Estudio transversal, descriptivo-correlacional, con una muestra de 136 estudiantes. La recopilación de datos se realizó en línea mediante la Escala de Medición de la Manifestación del Bienestar Psicológico y el Brief COPE. Resultados: Los estudiantes de los últimos cursos utilizan con más frecuencia la estrategia de afrontamiento apoyo instrumental (p = 0,015) y emocional (p = 0,009), y también tienen mayores niveles de bienestar psicológico (p = 0,012). Los cambios en los ingresos familiares se asocian con el bienestar psicológico (p = 0,024), así como con las estrategias de afrontamiento religión (r = 0,36; p ≤ 0,01), reinterpretación positiva (r = 0,47; p ≤ 0,01) y estado de ánimo (r = 0,37; p ≤ 0,01). Conclusión: Las estrategias de afrontamiento adoptadas por los estudiantes parecen estar relacionadas con el bienestar psicológico durante la cuarentena.

The development of inclusion complexes is used to encapsulate nonpolar compounds and improve their physicochemical characteristics. This study aims to develop complexes made up of Euterpe oleracea Mart oil (EOO) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) or hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) by either kneading (KND) or slurry (SL). Complexes were analyzed by molecular modeling, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The antibacterial activity was expressed as Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), and the antibiotic resistance modulatory activity as subinhibitory concentration (MIC/8) against Escherichia coli, Streptomyces aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis. Inclusion complexes with β-CD and HP-β-CD were confirmed, and efficiency was proven by an interaction energy between oleic acid and β-CD of −41.28 ± 0.57 kJ/mol. MIC values revealed higher antibacterial activity of complexes compared to the isolated oil. The modulatory response of EOO and EOO-β-CD prepared by KND as well as of EOO-β-CD and EOO-HP-β-CD prepared by SL showed a synergistic effect with ampicillin against E. coli, whereas it was not significant with the other drugs tested, maintaining the biological response of antibiotics. The antimicrobial response exhibited by the complexes is of great significance because it subsidizes studies for the development of new pharmaceutical forms.

Today young people experience a world that is being significantly changed by large-scale transformations in education and labour markets. Youth, as a generation, is most affected by those changes, since they are more likely to reshape their ways of living in response to the conditions they face, which inevitably produce inequalities in their lives. Volunteering is one of their responses. This paper aims to discuss the generational motivations and attitudes of a group of 11 European young people to participate in a European Voluntary Service project during a period of one year. The data was collected through an ethnographic methodological approach conducted between 2013 and 2014 in a Youth Centre in northern Portugal. Results clearly indicate that young people have an instrumental relationship with volunteering, which is mainly focused on the individual benefits that they believe they will acquire in their personal and professional life. Volunteering emerges as an opportunity to escape and to overcome the persisting challenges and constraints posed by our society; namely unemployment and precariousness, both of which are on the rise amongst young generations around the world.

Background Sexism results in a number of attitudes and behaviors that contribute to gender inequalities in social structure and interpersonal relationships. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lights4Violence, an intervention program based on promoting health assets to reduce sexist attitudes in young European people. Methods We carried out a quasi-experimental study in a non-probabilistic population of 1146 students, aged 12–17 years. The dependent variables were the difference in the wave 1 and wave 2 values in the subscales of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: benevolent sexism (BS) and hostile sexism (HS). The effect of the intervention was evaluated through linear regression analyses stratified by sex. The models were adjusted by baseline subscales scores, socio-demographic and psychological variables. Results In girls, we observed a decrease in BS in the intervention group compared to the control group (β = − 0.101; p  = 0.006). In the wave2,, BS decreased more in the intervention group compared to the control group in girls with mothers with a low level of education (β = − 0.338; p  = 0.001), with a high level of social support (β = − 0.251; p  < 0.001), with greater capacity for conflict resolution (β = − 0.201; p  < 0.001) and lower levels of aggressiveness (β = − 0.232, p  < 0.001). In boys, the mean levels of HS and BH decreased in wave 2 in both the control and intervention groups. The changes observed after the wave 2 were the same in the control group and in the intervention group. No significant differences were identified between both groups. Conclusions The implementation of the Lights4Violence was associated with a significant reduction in BS in girls, which highlights the potential of interventions aimed at supporting the personal competencies and social support. It is necessary to reinforce the inclusion of educational contents that promote reflection among boys about the role of gender and the meaning of the attributes of masculinity. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03411564 . Unique Protocol ID: 776905. Date registered: 26-01-2018.