Motivations and attitudes of men towards male gamete donation: donate to whom and why?

O alargamento da Procriação Medicamente Assistida (PMA) a todas as mulheres e o levantamento do anonimato da doação enfatizou a escassez de dadores, em Portugal. Foram exploradas motivações para doar, atitudes face ao anonimato e atitudes face a doar para grupos específicos por parte de homens aptos a doar gâmetas, entre os 18 e 40 anos (N = 282). Explorou-se ainda a relação entre estas motivações e atitudes e as caraterísticas psicológicas e sociodemográficas dos participantes, incluindo a sua orientação sexual. Os participantes reportaram razões altruístas para doar, mostraram atitudes positivas face ao anonimato e maior preferência a doar a mulher inférteis. Porém, no caso de homens heterossexuais, menos educados e mais novos, a motivação para doar para estava mais relacionada com a certificação acerca da própria fertilidade; os últimos tenderam, ainda, a defender que os pais que recorrem a PMA devem divulgar, à criança, as suas origens. Relativamente às variáveis psicológicas, a Conscienciosidade mostrou-se positivamente associada a "saber se sou fértil ou não". A preocupação empática evidenciou uma associação positiva com "ajudar alguém a ter um filho" e com atitudes positivas face à doação, independentemente da orientação sexual, fertilidade ou estado civil dos recetores. Valores de conservação mostraram-se positivamente associados a "compensação financeira" e "saber se sou fértil ou não". Uma maior adesão a valores religiosos mostrou-se negativamente associada a "ajudar alguém a ter um filho" e a atitudes positivas face à doação para todas as pessoas. As campanhas de recrutamento de dadores devem considerar as motivações, as atitudes e as características de potenciais dadores; a parentalidade deve ser vista como um direito universal, e a doação deve ser incentivada, independentemente do estatuto de fertilidade dos recetores; informações claras sobre o anonimato da doação poderão também ser fornecidas

Perinatal profile of ventricular overload markers in congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Background: In congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), pulmonary hypertension increases right ventricle (RV) afterload, which could impair heart function and contribute to poor outcome for most affected infants. Nevertheless, the real significance of vascular pulmonary alterations in perinatal hemodynamics is largely unknown. It is defined that ventricular pressure overload induces increased myocardium gene expression of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and components of the reninangiotensinogen and endothelin (ET)–1 systems. Our aim was to evaluate perinatal myocardium expression of these genes associated with ventricular pressure overload in a nitrofen-induced CDH rat model. Methods: In the nitrofen-induced CDH rat model, fetuses from dated pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats at 15.5, 17.5, 19.5 and 21.5 days postcoitum as well as newborn pups were assigned to 3 experimental groups: control, nitrofen (exposed to nitrofen, without CDH), and CDH (exposed to nitrofen, with CDH). Myocardial samples collected from the RV and left ventricle (LV) were processed for quantification of messenger RNA (mRNA) of BNP, angiotensinogen, and ET-1. Results: The perinatal expression of BNP, angiotensinogen, and ET-1 mRNA in the RV and LV of the control group revealed daily changes. During gestation, the expression of BNP and angiotensinogen mRNA underwent significant oscillation compared with control in both nitrofen-exposed fetuses, although we cannot identify significant differences between the nitrofen and CDH groups. After birth, we found a significant increasing expression of all studied genes only in the RV of CDH pups. Conclusions: Perinatal myocardial quantification of BNP, angiotensinogen, and ET-1 mRNA levels suggests that both nitrofen-exposed and control pups revealed prenatal variations of expression of the studied genes. Moreover, CDH is associated with significant molecular alterations only in the RV after birth

COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey – an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available

COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey - an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available.Measurement(s) psychological measurement center dot anxiety-related behavior trait center dot Stress center dot response to center dot Isolation center dot loneliness measurement center dot Emotional Distress Technology Type(s) Survey Factor Type(s) geographic location center dot language center dot age of participant center dot responses to the Coronavirus pandemic Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Sample Characteristic - Location global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data:Peer reviewe

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic : relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.Peer reviewe

Cooperação e capacidade competitiva em redes industriais : redes, projectos e díades na indústria têxtil e do vestuário

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências Empresariais (área de conhecimento em Marketing e Gestão Estratégica)A relevância dos relacionamentos é uma realidade incontornável na existência de qualquer empresa todas as empresas criam, desenvolvem e gerem relacionamentos com outras empresas e organizações de forma mais ou menos rotineira. No entanto, as empresas nem sempre possuem a consciência das implicações que decorrem das redes inter-organizacionais e, ainda menos, das implicações que podem vir a existir. A investigação apresentada nesta tese analisa essas questões, estudando quatro casos desenvolvidos no âmbito da indústria têxtil e do vestuário portuguesa. Os casos são analisados com base em quatro unidades de análise: empresa, díade, projecto e rede de relacionamentos. A análise tem por base um modelo conceptual, designado por modelo de cooperação inter-organizacional, que deriva da revisão da literatura e incorpora os seguintes constructos: actividades, actores e recursos; cooperação interorganizacional; cooperação estratégica; e capacidade competitiva. A indústria têxtil e de vestuário possui uma elevada expressão ao nível nacional e atravessa um período de acentuada mudança, que está a originar a transição dos paradigmas que serviram de base ao tecido industrial. Recorrendo a dados qualitativos recolhidos através de 45 entrevistas e fontes documentais em 32 empresas, a tese analisa de que forma é possível materializar o desenvolvimento interorganizacional em rede para gerar capacidade competitiva, perceber como as empresas sentem e reagem à evolução do seu contexto e como a evolução das interacções inter-organizacionais é traduzida na estratégia. O contributo da investigação para a teoria é materializado através do modelo conceptual original, do enquadramento dos projectos e das redes de projectos nas redes industriais, do enquadramento da análise inter-organizacional num sector de actividade específico e do desenvolvimento na aplicação das metodologias qualitativas na investigação em ciências empresariais. Em termos empíricos, a investigação vem alertar para a necessidade das empresas pensarem a sua rede de relacionamentos de um forma mais estruturada e como potencial fonte de vantagem competitiva, evidenciando o papel que as díades, os projectos e a rede de relacionamentos desempenham na capacidade competitiva da empresa.The importance of relationships is an inevitable reality in the existence of any firm All firms create, develop and manage relationships with other firms and organizations on a more or less regular basis. However, firms don’t always possess the consciousness of the implications that derive from interorganizational networks, and even less the implications that may arise. The research presented in this thesis analyzes these issues, studying four cases developed within the Portuguese textile and clothing industry. The cases are analyzed based in four units of analysis: firm, dyad, project and relationship network. The analysis is based on a conceptual model, named as model of interorganizational cooperation, which derives from the literature review and incorporates the following constructs: activities, actors and resources; interorganizational cooperation; strategic cooperation; and competitive capacity. The textile and clothing industry possesses a high importance at national level and traverses a period of considerable change, which is originating the transition of the paradigms that served as a basis to the industrial structure. Resorting to qualitative data gathered through 45 interviews and documental sources in 32 firms, the thesis analyzes in which way it is possible to materialize the interorganizational development in a network to generate competitive capacity, understand how firms feel and react to the evolution of their context and how the evolution of the inter-organizational interactions is translated in the strategy. The contribution of the research to the theory is materialized through the original conceptual model, the inclusion of the projects and project networks in the industrial networks, the inclusion of the interorganizational analysis in a specific activity sector, and the development of the application of qualitative methodologies in management science research. In empirical terms, the research calls the attention to the necessity of firms to think their relationship network in a more structured way and as a potential source of competitive advantage, highlighting the role carried out by dyads, projects and the relationship network in the competitive capacity of the firm

Síndrome de Marfan — Manifestações Cardiovasculares

O Síndrome de Marfan (S.M.) é a alteração hereditária do tecido conjuntivo mais comum. É caracterizado por manifestações cardiovasculares, esqueléticas e oculares. O seu prognóstico depende principalmente das complicações cardiovasculares. Com o objectivo de avaliar as manifestações cardiovasculares do S.M. em idade pediátrica, os autores procederam à revisão dos processos clínicos das crianças seguidas na consulta de Cardiologia Pediátrica de um hospital central, de Janeiro de 1996 a Agosto de 1999. De um total de 11 crianças, 6 pertenciam ao sexo feminino. Em 2 casos o diagnóstico foi efectuado no 1.° mês de vida. Aquando da 1.4 consulta, 3 crianças apresentavam insuficiência cardíaca congestiva (ICC) devida a insuficiência mitral (IM), por prolapso valvular.O prolapso da válvula mitral (PVM) foi a alteração mais frequente (70%), logo seguido pela dilatação da raiz da aorta (DRA) (50%).O tempo médio de seguimento foi de 6,5 anos (Mn-9M; Mx-18A).Durante este período, 4 crianças sofreram um agravamento franco da sua IM e um caso evoluiu para DRA com insuficiência aórtica (IAo).Dois casos foram submetidos a cirurgia. A DRA pode estar presente numa fase precoce da vida, ocorrendo, habitualmente, as suas complicações na adolescência/idade adulta. O uso de [3-bloqueadores pode ser benéfico na redução da progressão da dilatação

Myocardium expression of connexin 43, SERCA2a, and myosin heavy chain isoforms are preserved in nitrofen-induced congenital diaphragmatic hernia rat model

Background: Previous morphological studies had produced controversial results with regard to heart development in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), whereas a few publications investigated cardiac function and myocardial maturation. Myocardium maturation is associated with age-dependent increasing of gene expression of gap junction protein connexin 43 (Cx43), adenosine triphosphatase of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SERCA2a), as well as switching of myosin heavy chains (MHCs) from beta to alpha isoforms. Our aim was to evaluate myocardium maturity in nitrofen-induced CDH rat model.Methods: Fetuses from dated pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to 3 experimental groups: control, nitrofen (exposed to nitrofen, without CDH), and CDH (exposed to nitrofen, with CDH). Myocardial samples collected from left ventricle free wall were processed to (i) quantification of messenger RNA (mRNA) of Cx43, SERCA2a, alpha and beta MHC isoforms, as well as beta-actin (housekeeping gene); and (ii) separation of MHC isoforms (a and beta isoforms) by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis silver stained.Results: We demonstrated that there is no difference in myocardial gene expression of Cx43 (control, 1.0 +/- 0.1; nitrofen, 1.1 +/- 0.2; CDH, 1.3 +/- 0.2) and SERCA2a (control, 1.0 +/- 0.1; nitrofen, 0.9 +/- 0.1; CDH, 1.0 +/- 0.2). Myocardial gene expressions of alpha and beta mRNA of MHC isoforms were slightly decreased both in nitrofen and CDH fetuses when compared with control fetuses, but evaluation of the alpha-to-beta ratios of MHC isoforms at protein level revealed no significant differences between CDH and control (control, 16.9 +/- 2.5; CDH, 17.0 +/- 2.0).Conclusions: Myocardial quantification of Cx43 and ERCA2a mRNA, as well as the expression pattern of MHC isoforms at protein levels, was similar in all studied groups. We predict, therefore, that acute heart failure commonly observed in CDH infants might be attributed predominantly to cardiac overload secondary to severe pulmonary hypertension rath