Characterizing neuromorphologic alterations with additive shape functionals

The complexity of a neuronal cell shape is known to be related to its function. Specifically, among other indicators, a decreased complexity in the dendritic trees of cortical pyramidal neurons has been associated with mental retardation. In this paper we develop a procedure to address the characterization of morphological changes induced in cultured neurons by over-expressing a gene involved in mental retardation. Measures associated with the multiscale connectivity, an additive image functional, are found to give a reasonable separation criterion between two categories of cells. One category consists of a control group and two transfected groups of neurons, and the other, a class of cat ganglionary cells. The reported framework also identified a trend towards lower complexity in one of the transfected groups. Such results establish the suggested measures as an effective descriptors of cell shape

Ethnic minorities’ and immigrants’ therapeutic (non)adherence: what is the role of social and cultural contexts?

Immigrants and ethnic minorities have been identified as vulnerable groups in health, in general, and in what concerns therapeutic non-adherence (TA) in particular; i.e., (not)following health-care providers’ therapeutic recommendations. The general aim of this paper is presenting a literature review of immigrants’/ethnic minorities’ TA determinants. We will start by highlighting the reasons as to why immigrants’/ethnic minorities’ therapeutic (non)adherence should be a topic of concern. Then, we will present a review of the main determinants of immigrants’/ethnic minorities’TA, at different levels of analysis (e.g., broad structural level; social and community networks; material and social conditions) and emphasize that non-adherence among immigrants/ethnic minorities is mostly non-intentional, seeing as how it is associated with issues such as: low socio-economic conditions, language barriers and cultural mismatches. Finally, we will highlight the role of health-care providers in tackling this health-related problem and reflect about the importance of promoting development and training of health-care providers’ multicultural abilities. Os imigrantes e as minorias étnicas têm sido identificados como grupos vulneráveis na área da saúde, em geral, e no que diz respeito à (não)adesão terapêutica, em particular, i.e., (não)seguimento das recomendações dos profissionais de saúde. O objetivo geral deste artigo é o de apresentar uma revisão de literatura sobre os determinantes da (não)adesão terapêutica de imigrantes e minorias étnicas. Inicialmente, destacar-se-ão os motivos pelos quais a (não)adesão terapêutica de imigrantes/minorias étnicas poderá ser considerada como um tema relevante. Seguidamente, apresentar-se-á uma revisão sobre os principais determinantes da (não)adesão de imigrantes/minorias étnicas, em diferentes níveis de análise (e.g., estrutural; redes sociais e comunitárias; condições materiais e sociais) e destacar-se-á que a não-adesão entre os imigrantes/minorias étnicas é sobretudo não-intencional, por se encontrar associada a questões como: condições socioeconómicas desfavoráveis, barreiras linguísticas, desen contros culturais. Finalmente, salientar-se-á o papel dos profissionais de saúde na resolução deste problema relacionado com a saúde e reflectir-se-á sobre a importância de promover o desenvolvimento e a formação de competências multiculturais por estes profissionais

What determines immigrant caregivers' adherence to health recommendations from child primary care services?

Aim To investigate the diversity and specificity of the determinants of immigrant caregivers' adherence to child primary care (CPC) health recommendations.Background Immigrant caregiver's adherence to CPC health recommendations is of utmost importance to minimize their children's health-related vulnerabilities. Some research has been conducted on the determinants of immigrants' access to health services, but much less is known about the determinants of their adherence to health professionals' recommendations once they get there, especially in a primary health care context. This study contributes to bridge these gaps.Methods Interviews and focus groups were conducted, with immigrant and non-immigrant caregivers living in Portugal (n=35), from heterogeneous socioeconomic backgrounds. Focus group and individual interview scripts were developed to explore caregivers' understanding and use of CPC services and, particularly, their adherence to CPC recommendations. A socio-demographic questionnaire was also administered. Qualitative data were analyzed using a grounded theory methodology.Findings 'Adherence to CPC health recommendations' is a core and multidimensional concept. Several determinants were identified at individual, interpersonal, organizational and structural levels. Some determinants were highlighted both by immigrant and non-immigrant caregivers: Valuing children's health, usefulness of recommendations, perceived health-care professionals' competence, central role of vaccination in CPC and caregivers' socio-economic conditions. Other determinants were specifically mentioned by immigrant caregivers: Expectations about traditional versus pharmacological treatments, cultural mismatches in children's care practices, perceived quality of Portuguese CPC services versus CPC from countries of origin. These results provide innovative theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of primary health care and, particularly, to immigrant caregivers' adherence behaviors. Implications for research on treatment adherence in primary care contexts, the development of interventions that promote caregivers' adherence to CPC health recommendations and for child protection will be discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Emergence of Hierarchy on a Network of Complementary Agents

Complementarity is one of the main features underlying the interactions in biological and biochemical systems. Inspired by those systems we propose a model for the dynamical evolution of a system composed by agents that interact due to their complementary attributes rather than their similarities. Each agent is represented by a bit-string and has an activity associated to it; the coupling among complementary peers depends on their activity. The connectivity of the system changes in time respecting the constraint of complementarity. We observe the formation of a network of active agents whose stability depends on the rate at which activity diffuses in the system. The model exhibits a non-equilibrium phase transition between the ordered phase, where a stable network is generated, and a disordered phase characterized by the absence of correlation among the agents. The ordered phase exhibits multi-modal distributions of connectivity and activity, indicating a hierarchy of interaction among different populations characterized by different degrees of activity. This model may be used to study the hierarchy observed in social organizations as well as in business and other networks.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitte

Coleta de material de cromossomos utilizando microscópio de força atômica.

bitstream/CNPDIA-2009-09/11835/1/CT75_2006.pd

The Portuguese Formal Social Support for Autonomy and Dependence in Pain Inventory (FSSADI_PAIN): A preliminary validation study.

WOS:000326693900009 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)Objectives. Development and preliminary validation of a Portuguese measure of perceived Formal Social Support for Autonomy and Dependence in Pain (FSSADI_PAIN). Methods. One hundred and fifty-one older adults (88.1% women), between 56 and 94 years of age (M = 75.41; SD = 9.11), who attended one of the following institutions – day care centre (33.1%), nursing home (36.4%) and senior university (30.5%) – were recruited for this study. Along with the FSSADI_PAIN, participants filled out the Portuguese versions of the Brief Pain Inventory (Azevedo et al., 2007, Dor, 15, 6) and the Social Support Scale of Medical Outcomes Survey (Pais-Ribeiro & Ponte, 2009, Psicologia, Saude & Doença, 10, 163). Results. The factorial structure reflected the functions of perceived promotion of (1) dependence and (2) autonomy, showing good internal consistency (a > .70) and sensitivity indices. The FSSADI_PAIN showed good content, discriminant and criterion validity; it differentiated the perceptions of promotion of dependence/autonomy according to individual’s pain severity and disability, as well as the type of institution. Conclusions. These preliminary findings suggest that the FSSADI_PAIN is an innovative and promising measure of perceived formal social support adapted to pain-related context

Assessing caregivers’ adherence to child primary care recommendations: development and validation of a scale

Introduction: Caregivers’ adherence to Child Primary Care (CPC) health recommendations is particularly relevant for the protection of children’s health and promotion of their optimal development. Nevertheless, there are currently no measures to assess it, as the majority of measures are focused on pharmacological treatment adherence instead of adherence to preventive health recommendations. Thus, this paper describes the development and validation of a new instrument to assess caregivers’ adherence to CPC health recommendations regarding children aged between 2 years and 6 years old, which would also be sensitive to the specificities of caregivers in more vulnerable conditions—the CPC-Adherence Scale. Methods: Six hundred sixty-two parents (93.4% women; 6.6% immigrant), living in Portugal and with children aged between 2 years and 6 years, participated in a cross-sectional study using a paper or electronic protocol. The protocol was composed by: (1) the CPC-Adherence Scale; (2) questions regarding experiences in CPC; (3) the European Task Force on Patient Evaluation of General Practice Care (EUROPEP); (4) socio-demographic information. Results: The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 2-factor solution: (1) Adherence to a safe psychomotor development (n = 14 items; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.894); (2) Adherence to nutritional counseling (n = 6 items; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.608). The CPC-Adherence Scale showed good content and criterion-related validity. It discriminated levels of adherence of caregivers with different levels of knowledge about CPC recommendations, satisfaction with care and different socio-economic and immigrant t status. Discussion: The CPC-Adherence Scale is an innovative and promising measure that may play a relevant role on future research and intervention for the promotion of adherence behaviors in a primary prevention context.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Plurality Voting: the statistical laws of democracy in Brazil

We explore the statistical laws behind the plurality voting system by investigating the election results for mayor held in Brazil in 2004. Our analysis indicate that the vote partition among mayor candidates of the same city tends to be "polarized" between two candidates, a phenomenon that can be closely described by means of a simple fragmentation model. Complex concepts like "government continuity" and "useful vote" can be identified and even statistically quantified through our approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Survival-extinction phase transition in a bit-string population with mutation

A bit-string model for the evolution of a population of haploid organisms, subject to competition, reproduction with mutation and selection is studied, using mean field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We show that, depending on environmental flexibility and genetic variability, the model exhibits a phase transtion between extinction and survival. The mean-field theory describes the infinite-size limit, while simulations are used to study quasi-stationary properties.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure