First report of a norovirus outbreak associated with the variant Sydney 2012 in Portugal

Introduction: This study describes the investigation of a gastroenteritis outbreak in a group of students, associated with a dinner reunion in February 2013 in Porto, Portugal. Methodology: An anonymous structured questionnaire was developed and sent to 34 students who attended the dinner reunion. Eighteen students completed the questionnaire and thirteen met the case definition (attack rate of 72%). Stools from two students were screened for norovirus by RT-PCR using primer pairs that target the highly conserved polymerase gene and the capsid gene. Results: Norovirus genotyping confirmed the variant Sydney 2012 as the probable cause of the outbreak. Conclusion: This is the first report of an outbreak associated with the new variant Sydney 2012 in Portugal.The study was supported by FEDER funds through Programa Operacional Factores de Competividade (COMPETE), by national funding through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (project PTDC/CVT/113218/2009), and by grant SFRH/BD/45407/2008, and by project Ovislab ICT-2013-05-004-5314 ID-64757

Avaliação de isolantes térmicos com potencial uso em aviários.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 03.07.94.900-04

Quality of life trajectories during the first three years after diagnosis of breast cancer: the NEON-BC study

Background We aimed to identify and characterize quality of life trajectories up to 3 years after breast cancer diagnosis. Methods A total of 460 patients were evaluated at baseline (before treatments), and after 1- and 3-years. Patient-reported outcomes, including quality of life (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30, QLQ-C30), anxiety, depression and sleep quality, were assessed in all evaluations. Model-based clustering was used to identify quality of life trajectories. Results We identified four trajectories without intersection during 3 years. The two trajectories characterized by better quality of life depicted relatively stable scores; in the other trajectories, quality of life worsened until 1 year, though in one of them the score at 3 years improved. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics at baseline did not differ between trajectories, except for mastectomy, which was higher in the worst trajectory. Anxiety, depression and poor sleep quality increased from the best to the worst trajectory. Conclusions The type of surgery and the variation of other patient-reported outcomes were associated with the course of quality of life over 3 years. More research to understand the heterogeneity of individual trajectories within these major patterns of variation is needed.This work was funded by FEDER through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology—FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) under the project ‘A five-year prospective cohort study on the neurological complications of breast cancer: frequency and impact in patient-reported outcomes’ (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016867, Ref. PTDC/DTP-EPI/7183/2014) and the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia—Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862; Ref. UID/DTP/04750/2019). LC was also funded under the scope of the project “NEON-PC - Neuro-oncological complications of prostate cancer: longitudinal study of cognitive decline” (POCI01-0145-FEDER-032358; ref. PTDC/SAU-EPI/32358/2017). Individual grants attributed to NA (SFRH/BD/119390/2016) and FF (SFRH/BD/92630/2013) were funded by FCT and the ‘Programa Operacional Capital Humano’ (POCH/FSE). Data management activities up to the first year of follow-up were supported by the Chair on Pain Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto and by the Grünenthal Foundation—Portugal

Quality of life trajectories in breast cancer patients: an updated analysis 5 years after diagnosis

Letter to the editorThis work was funded by FEDER through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology—FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) under the project ‘A five-year prospective cohort study on the neurological complications of breast cancer: frequency and impact in patient-reported outcomes’ (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016867, Ref. PTDC/DTP-EPI/7183/2014), and national funding from FCT under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia—Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016867, Ref. PTDC/DTP-EPI/7183/2014), and national funding from FCT under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia - Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB/04750/2020/PT). LLC was funded under the scope of the project ‘NEON-PC—Neuro-oncological complications of prostate cancer: longitudinal study of cognitive decline’ (POCI01–0145-FEDER-032358; ref. PTDC/SAU-EPI/32358/2017). Individual grants attributed to NA (SFRH/BD/119390/2016) and FF (SFRH/BD/92630/2013) were funded by FCT and the ‘Programa Operacional Capital Humano’ (POCH/FSE). Data management activities up to the first year of follow-up were supported by the Chair on Pain Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, and by the Grünenthal Foundation—Portugal

Trajectories of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms over Five Years since Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Results of the NEON-BC Prospective Study

Anxiety and depression symptoms are frequent among patients with breast cancer (BCa) and may last after initial treatments. We aimed to identify five-year trajectories of anxiety and depression symptoms among women with BCa. Neuro-oncological complications of BCa (NEON-BC) cohort included 506 patients admitted at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto in 2012, who were evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale before cancer treatment and after one, three, and five years (7.9% attrition rate). Mixed-effect models were used to model anxiety and depression scores over time and model-based clustering to identify the different trajectories. Three trajectories of anxiety symptoms were identified: (1) high scores at baseline and increasing over time (21.7%); (2) consistently low scores over time (63.6%); (3) mid-range scores at baseline, decreasing over time (14.6%). Three trajectories were identified for depression symptoms: (1) high scores at baseline and increasing over time (21.1%); (2) mid-range scores at baseline, which decreased afterward (58.7%); (3) consistently low levels over time (20.2%). Age, education, baseline, and one-year anxiety/depression status predicted the worst five-year trajectories. These results show that assessing anxiety and depression symptoms before treatment and after one year may contribute to identifying the patients who could benefit the most from psychological support. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This research was funded by the European Regional Development Funds (POCI-01-0145-FEDER016867) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), under the project “A five-year prospective cohort study on the neurological complications of breast cancer: frequency and impact in patient-reported outcomes” (PTDC/DTP-EPI/7183/2014), and by FCT under EPIUnit-Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (UIDB/04750/2020) and Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional (LA/P/0064/2020). NA receives funding from FCT under the project NeurodegCov19-Neurological Complications after COVID-19 (PTDC/SAU-EPI/6275/2020) and C.L., from FCT under the project NEON-PC: neuro-oncological complications of prostate cancer-longitudinal study of cognitive decline (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032358, Ref. PTDC/SAU-EPI/32358/2017). Data management activities up to the first year of follow-up were supported by the Chair on Pain Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, and the Grünenthal Foundation—Portugal

Mapeamento da distribuição da temperatura em sistema de aquecimento para aves.

Projeto: 02.10.06.002

Metodologia de determinação do pH da temperatura da cama de aviário em tempo real.

Projeto: 03.07.09.049

Ecotoxicological aspects related to the presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment

Pharmaceuticals are biologically active and persistent substances which have been recognized as a continuing threat to environmental stability. Chronic ecotoxicity data as well as information on the current distribution levels in different environmental compartments continue to be sparse and are focused on those therapeutic classes that are more frequently prescribed and consumed. Nevertheless, they indicate the negative impact that these chemical contaminants may have on living organisms, ecosystems and ultimately, public health. This article reviews the different contamination sources as well as fate and both acute and chronic effects on non-target organisms. An extensive review of existing data in the form of tables, encompassing many therapeutic classes is presented

Population distribution of six PCR-amplified loci in Madeira Archipelago (Portugal)

Frequency data of the short tandem repeat (STR) loci HUMTH01, HUMVWA31/A, HUMF13A1, HUMFES/FPS, D12S391 and HUMFIBRA/FGA were determined in blood stains obtained from a population of unrelated individuals from the Madeira Archipelago. The observed genotype distribution showed no significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and there was no evidence for association of alleles among the six loci. Population data showed a combined discrimination power of 0.9999998 and a chance of exclusion of 0.99597. The frequencies are similar to those of other compared caucasian populations but significant differences were found between the Madeira population and Japanese, Chinese, Greenland Eskimos and Quechua Amerindians. The six loci studied, together proved to be highly discriminating and valuable for forensic cases.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T6W-3W4GJ8F-8/1/69f0571183c0d939b9244a0841a1802