Subjective memory complaints in Portuguese young adults: contributions from the adaptation of the prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire

Self-report instruments that allow to characterize the frequency of daily memory failures are essential for a comprehensive assessment of memory functioning. In this context, we aimed to provide preliminary evidence of validity and reliability for the European Portuguese adaptation of the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). A total of 1052 healthy participants completed an online survey with the PRMQ. The exploration of the construct validity suggested the tripartite model with a general memory, a prospective memory, and a retrospective memory factors to have the best adjustment to the data. Measurement invariance across age and sex groups was also verified. The questionnaire revealed good convergent validity with a general self-report measure of memory (0.778 < r < 0.853), and satisfactory values of internal consistency (0.779 < Cronbach's alpha < 0.887) and of test-retest reliability (0.815 < r < 0.852). There were no prominent effects of sex and age in the PRMQ scores. Although the sample encompassed mainly younger and highly educated adults, this study presented the first evidence of validity and reliability for the European Portuguese version of the questionnaire.- This work was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under a Doctoral grant (PD/BD/105964/2014) of the FCT PhD Programmes with the support of the Operational Programme for Human Capital (POCH). It was partially conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, supported by the FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the Portugal2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). The authors would like to thank particularly the original authors of the questionnaire, and the institutions that responsively helped to spread the word regarding the study, namely University of Porto and University of Beira Anterior. We would like to acknowledge Joana Coutinho, Alberto Crego, and Ana Seara-Cardoso for aiding with the translation procedures. Special thanks are also due to the members of the Neuropsychophysiology Laboratory and the Human Memory Research Group of the University of Minho for the feedback in the early stages of the questionnaire adaptation. The authors would like to acknowledge all the participants that collaborated in this work, and the reviewers whose comments helped to improve the manuscript

Red blood cells motion in a glass microchannel

The motion of the red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in microvessels and microchannels depend on several effects, such as hematocrit (Hct), geometry, and temperature. According to our knowledge, the effect of the temperature on RBC motion was never investigated at a microscale level. Hence, the aim of the present work is to determine the effect of the temperature on the RBC’s trajectories and to investigate the best approximation of the trajectories through a nonlinear optimization. In vitro human blood was pumped through a 100 mm circular microchannel and by using a confocal micro- PTV system the RBC’s trajectories were measured at different temperatures, i.e., 25◦C and 37◦C. In this study we measured the motion of forty cells flowing in the middle of the microchannel and applied different functions to approximate its behavior.This study was supported in part by the following grants: Grant-in-Aid for Science and Technology (PTDC/SAU-BEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008 and PTDC/EME-MFE/099109/2008) from the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and COMPETE, Portugal

Motion of red blood cells in a glass microchannel: a global optimization approach

Este artigo também deve ser anexado ao Departamento Tecnologia Mecânica, docente Rui Alberto Madeira Macedo Lima.In this work we characterized the behavior of red blood cell motion through a glass microchannel. In this study we consider the radial displacement of forty red blood cells and use different functions to approximate the radial displacement of each of them, by means of global optimization using stretched simulated annealing method. Some numerical results are shown

Cell-free layer (CFL) analysis in a glass capillary: comparison between a manual and automatic method

In this study, in vitro blood flowing through a 100 m glass capillary was studied. The images were captured using a confocal system and post-processed using Image J and MatLab. The aim of the present work, was to measure the trajectories of the cell-free layer (CFL) by using two different methods, i. e., a manual method (MM) and an automatic method (AM). For theMM we have used amanual tracking plugin (MTrackJ) from Image J to track labeled red blood cells (RBCs) flowing around the boundary of the RBCs core. For the AM we have used a MatLab scripts to measure automatically the CFL trajectories. The preliminary numerical results suggest that the CFL trajectories follow a polynomial function for both methods.The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by: PTDC/SAU-BEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008, PTDC/EME-MFE/099109/2008 and PTDC/SAU-ENB/116929/2010 from the FCT (Science and Technology Foundation) and COMPETE, Portugal

A comparison between a manual and automatic method to characterize red blood cell trajectories

The current study proposes an automatic method for the segmentation and tracking of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through a 100 u m glass capillary. The measurements obtained with the proposed automatic method are compared with a manual tracking method using nonlinear optimization techniques.The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by: PTDC/SAUBEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008 and PTDC/EME-MFE/ 099109/2008 from the FCT (Science and Technology Foundation) and COMPETE, Portugal

Cell-free layer measurements in bifurcating microchannels: a global approach

In the present work, in vitro blood flowing through bifurcating microchannels was studied, with the aim of characterizing the cell-free layer (CFL). The original images were obtained by means of a high-speed video microscopy system and then processed in MatLab using the Image Processing Toolbox. The numerical data was obtained automatically and analyzed by optimization techniques using the genetic algorithm approach. The results suggest that the CFL were formed in a similar way at the upper and lower regions in all bifurcations, and the measurements can be approximated through a sum of trigonometric functions

How does performing demanding activities influence prospective memory? A systematic review

This paper is the first systematic review on the role of ongoing task load in prospective remembering, which was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Forty articles published between 1995 and 2020 were included. They evaluated prospective memory (PM) performance (i.e., the ability to remember to execute a delayed intention) in adult samples aged between 19 and 50 years old when the PM cue appeared under cognitively demanding conditions.The results revealed that people are more likely to fail to remember to perform a delayed intention at the appropriate circumstances or time in the future when their cognitive resources are taxed by demanding ongoing activities. We conclude the review by highlighting that the degree of working memory and executive resources seems to account for some of the discrepant findings and by proposing directions for future research.- This project was founded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) with the grant BD/123421/2016 awarded to Patricia Matos and with thegrant PD/BD/105964/2014 awarded to Diana R. Pereira. This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2019), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through the State Budget (UID/PSI/01662/2019). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Patricia Fernanda Ferreira Matos, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Functionalised collagen-MnO2 fibres inhibit oxidative-induced apoptosis in degenerated IVD

Intervertebral disc cell apoptosis has been reported as the major factor responsible in promoting disc degeneration. In this study we hypothesize that collagen fibres with manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanoparticles (NPs) can increase oxygen levels by scavenging ROS species and converting it into byproducts. The specific objective of this study is to fabricate collagen fibres incorporating NPs (Fig. 1), with controlled degradability that are able to scavenge ROS species and generate O2 while inhibiting annulus fibrosus (AF) cell apoptosis under inflamed conditions.Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the European Regional Development Fund (13/RC/2073)Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/81356/2011

Consumo de suplementos e outras substâncias em desportistas

Ao longo dos tempos os praticantes de exercício físico têm usado substâncias artificiais para aumentarem o seu rendimento e assim conseguirem vantagem desportiva. (1) Um dos grandes problemas associado a estas substâncias, no nosso país, é o facto de a maioria ser comercializada fora do circuito dos produtos farmacêuticos, sem qualquer controlo por parte do INFARMED (2) enquanto no Brasil todos os suplementos estão sujeitos ao controle sanitário da ANVISA. (3) Para além disto, o uso destas substâncias ocorre, na maioria das vezes, sem a necessária orientação, como resultado das recomendações de colegas, treinadores, revistas, sites da internet. (4) O presente estudo tem como propósito caracterizar o consumo de suplementos e outras substâncias em frequentadores de ginásios, em função de variáveis sociodemográficas, pessoais e práticas desportivas. O estudo, de carácter transversal, descritivo e correlacional, usou como instrumento de recolha dos dados o questionário, que foi aplicado a 340 indivíduos utilizadores de ginásios de Pampulha - Belo Horizonte, Brasil e Bragança, Portugal. De entre os inquiridos, podemos referir que 57,9% nunca consumiu nenhum suplemento ou outra substância como forma de manutenção da sua forma física enquanto 42,1% já consumiu ou consome, sendo que é no Brasil onde se observa um maior consumo (53,3%) quando comparado com Portugal (38,4%). O género apresenta-se como uma variável com influência estatisticamente significativa (p-value < 0,001) em ambos os países, onde o sexo masculino lidera o consumo, sendo os homens do Brasil os que mais consomem suplementos ou outras substâncias (67,9%) (em Portugal representam 59,0%). Globalmente, os praticantes de musculação possuem uma maior percentagem de consumo de suplementos ou outras substâncias em relação às outras modalidades praticadas. Quanto aos suplementos/substâncias mais consumidas, em Portugal destacam-se as proteínas com 76,0% e no Brasil as bebidas energéticas com 79,2% Pode observar-se ainda que 33,0% dos inquiridos não recebeu aconselhamento aquando da toma do suplemento ou substância, seguindo-se o aconselhamento por amigos/colegas (26,0%), verificando-se que apenas uma minoria procurou profissionais de farmácia (6,0%). Destaca-se ainda o desconhecimento da existência de consequências a longo prazo associadas ao consumo deste tipo de substâncias. Globalmente, o presente estudo salienta uma elevada percentagem de consumo de suplementos ou outras substâncias associadas ao melhoramento da performance física pelo género masculino em idade jovem e que pratica musculação. O estudo apresenta-se como uma mais-valia para o conhecimento acerca do tema, uma vez que existe uma certa despreocupação em relação ao consumo deste tipo de substâncias

Red blood cell dispersion in 100 um glass capillaries: the temperature effect

The rheological behaviour of the red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in microvessels and microchannels depend on several effects, such as hematocrit (Hct), geometry, and temperature. Previous in vitro studies have measured the Hct effect on the radial dispersion (Dyy) at both diluted and concentrated suspensions of RBCs. However, according to our knowledge the effect of the temperature on RBC Dyy was never studied. Hence, the main purpose of the present work is to investigate the effect of the temperature on the RBC Dyy. In vitro human blood was pumped through a 100 μm glass capillary and by using a confocal micro-PTV system the RBC Dyy was calculated at two different temperatures, i.e., 25ºC and 37ºC.This study was supported in part by the following grants: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS; no 19100008), Grant-in-Aid for Science and Technology (PTDC/SAL-BEB/108728/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008 and PTDC/EME-MFE/099109/2008) from the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and COMPETE, Portugal. We also acknowledge the support from the 2007 Global COE Program “Global NanoBiomedical Engineering Education and Research Network’