Inovamais

IntroductionThe gender gap in technology entrepreneurship represents a significant and persistent disparity, with women significantly underrepresented in creating and leading technology start-ups. To address this multifaceted problem, it is critical to research and implement educational models that can foster intrinsic motivation in aspiring female entrepreneurs. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provides a valuable framework for such an educational approach, emphasizing the importance of satisfying essential psychological needs—autonomy, competence and relatedness—to enhance motivation and commitment. Integrating SDT principles into entrepreneurship education can create supportive environments that empower women, encourage diverse perspectives, and ultimately bridge the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. Particularly in the case of female students, it is important to understand how to empower their behavior choices to make possible different professional paths, with tech entrepreneurship being one of them. This gender gap has not yet been addressed through an education model proposal. Much has been said to characterize and identify it, but there is no proposal to change the higher education system in the STEM area, which is the research goal achieved in this paper: we need to analyze the gender gap in HEI and its relation to becoming entrepreneurial and understand how HEI may support the tech entrepreneurial behavior. To answer these questions we are going, in pursuit of the intrinsic motivations to support more entrepreneurial behavior in STEM female students.MethodsA quantitative approach was designed to collect data to identify the gender gap in five European higher education institutions (HEI) in five different countries. In April, surveys were launched to female students, allowing a descriptive, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the SDT intrinsic motivation constructs.ResultsThe results confirmed that there is a gender gap to overcome and that the teaching-learning process may help to potentiate the female student’s capacities of self-knowledge and self-value for female students. The autonomy need was identified as the most influential construct on students becoming entrepreneurs, not dishing the effect the competences and relatedness have. Understanding this reality allows for further development of the education model proposed and discussed.ConclusionHigher education lectures, particularly in STEM programs, can improve their teaching processes to become more inclusive and promote an effective entrepreneurial mindset. Understanding what will change helps engage in a different paradigm of education in technology, demystifying the concepts of entrepreneurship and allowing inclusion and gender equality in the higher education system.

Bladder malignancy represents the fourth most common cancer in men and the eighth in women in the western world. Women under 75 years of age have a risk of 0.5–1% of developing bladder cancer. The diagnosis usually occurs between 65 and 70 years of age, whereas the mortality rate for women varies from 0.5 to 4 per 100,000 every year. Nulliparous women present a greater risk than women who have given birth. The risk is further decreased when parity increases. Theoretically, hormonal changes occurring during pregnancy play a protective role. Smoking and occupational exposure to specific chemicals are the most common risk factors of bladder cancer. Other risk factors such as chronic urinary tract inflammation, cyclophosphamide, radiotherapy, and familial correlation have been reported. The aim of this review is to highlight a rare combination, which is the co-existence of bladder malignancy and pregnancy. We present thirteen different cases of women who were diagnosed with malignant bladder tumors during their pregnancy. A review of the literature was conducted, focusing on the unspecific symptoms, possible diagnostic tools, and suitable treatment modalities. The management of bladder cancer in pregnancy is a challenging process. The fragile balance between the possible complications of pregnancy and maternal health is yet to be discussed.

ABSTRACT Children born extremely preterm (EPT) or very preterm (VPT) are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairment. How the interaction between biological and social risk factors affects cognitive development has not yet been completely understood. The objectives of this study are to analyze and compare the language, memory, and learning outcomes of five-year-old children born EPT (<28 weeks’ gestational age) and VPT (28–31+6 weeks’ gestational age) and to determine the risk of having poor outcomes attending to perinatal and maternal characteristics. The analysis included 377 children born VPT (n = 284) and EPT (n = 93) in 2011–2012. Maternal, neonatal, and clinical information was obtained at birth, and maternal education was obtained at five years using a parental questionnaire. At five years, the language, memory, and learning outcomes were assessed with the developmental NEuroPSYchological assessment second edition (NEPSY-II®). Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association of biological and social risk factors with performance below the expected level for the child’s age in language, memory, and learning subtests. Lower maternal age and education increased the odds of having language performance below the expected level for the child’s age, while lower maternal educational level and gestational age increased the likelihood of having memory performance below the expected level. Children living in the most social disadvantage contexts are at a higher risk of suboptimal cognitive development. Implementing intervention programs in disadvantaged contexts and targeting specific cognitive domains may enable EPT and VPT children to reach and fulfill their potential in society.

BackgroundChronic urticaria is defined as the appearance of urticarial lesions and/or angioedema during a period of more than six weeks. We aimed at developing the Portuguese version of the Chronic Urticaria Quality of Life Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL) and at testing its reliability and the content, construct and criterion validity.MethodsThe forward-backward approach to a linguistic equivalence was followed, after which a clinical review and a cognitive debriefing with patients were performed. The intraclass correlation coefficient checked test-retest reliability with patients filling the same questionnaire with one week apart and the Cronbach’s alpha indicator assessed the internal consistency. Construct validity was tested by an exploratory factor analysis and by hypothesis tests involving sociodemographic and clinical patient characteristics, including the urticaria control test (UCT). On the other hand, criterion validity was tested through correlations with the Short-Form Health Survey SF-36, EQ-5D-5 L, and the Dermatology Quality of Life Index (DLQI).ResultsA total of 162 patients from seven hospital units were included. The mean (standard deviation) age was 42.6 (13.3) and 81.6% were female. CU-Q2oL was entirely filled by all respondents. Internal consistency was 0.947 for the overall score, ranging from 0.661 (limits) to 0.899 (sleep problems) and the corresponding reproducibility indicator was 0.910, based on 23 patients and ranging from 0.711 (swelling) and 0.957 (looks). Exploratory factor analysis in general confirmed the original structure originally obtained by the authors. All CU-Q2oL dimensions were highly correlated with DLQI Index and differentiated well between males and females, and between different levels of wheals and pruritus. In addition, moderate negative correlations were found between Cu-Q2oL scores and the dimensions from SF-36 and EQ-5D-5 L.ConclusionsThe satisfactory metric properties confirmed the cultural adaptation and validity of CU-Q2oL into Portuguese population, providing the clinicians with a valid tool to evaluate the impact of chronic urticaria on patient’s QoL and therefore adjust their treatment.Trial registration numberNot applicable.

RESUMO A literacia pré-escolar tem recebido uma crescente atenção. Neste estudo, participaram 70 crianças que iniciaram o 1.º ano de escolaridade no ano letivo 2009/10 e que, na educação pré-escolar, frequentaram três instituições com abordagens diferenciadas de leitura e de escrita. O estudo inclui quatro medidas repetidas no tempo nas áreas da fonologia, reconhecimento de letras, palavras e velocidade de leitura. Os resultados sugerem que a abordagem específica à leitura na educação pré-escolar condiciona o desempenho da leitura na instrução primária. Contudo, essa influência parece ser atenuada com o tempo. Por outro lado, verificou-se que sujeitos que receberam instrução direta de leitura em idade pré-escolar (mas não treino fonológico) obtêm resultados significativamente superiores em tarefas fonológicas aos de sujeitos que receberam treino fonológico prolongado (mas não de leitura).