Junior Recital

List of performers and performances

Hypophosphatemia As a Possible Biomarker for Epileptic Seizures at the Emergency Department

Introduction: Hypophosphatemia seems to be temporally associated with seizures, despite not being considered a trigger. We aimed to evaluate hypophosphatemia as a biomarker for seizures. Methods: Retrospective study, including all consecutive patients admitted at our central hospital's emergency department from 01/01-31/03/2021, screened as "altered consciousness/syncope" or "seizures", with available phosphate levels. Results: 277 patients included, mostly male (61.7%), mean age 64.3 years. Final diagnosis was "seizure" in 34.7% and "other diagnosis" in 65.3%. Patients with seizures were younger (p200U/L) was more frequent in the seizure group (p=0.04). Odds ratio (OR) of hypophosphatemia for seizures was 4.330 (CI 95% 2.170-8.640, p<0.001), persisting after correction for confounders. OR of hyperCK was 1.890 (CI 95% 1.060-3.371, p=0.03), losing significance when adjusted. Sensitivity was low for both. Hypophosphatemia was more specific (91.2% vs 79.9%). Conclusions: Our findings support hypophosphatemia as a seizure biomarker. More studies are needed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Linking appraisal to behavioral flexibility in animals: implications for stress research

In fluctuating environments, organisms require mechanisms enabling the rapid expression of context-dependent behaviors. Here, we approach behavioral flexibility from a perspective rooted in appraisal theory, aiming to provide a better understanding on how animals adjust their internal state to environmental context. Appraisal has been defined as a multi-component and interactive process between the individual and the environment, in which the individual must evaluate the significance of a stimulus to generate an adaptive response. Within this framework, we review and reframe the existing evidence for the appraisal components in animal literature, in an attempt to reveal the common ground of appraisal mechanisms between species. Furthermore, cognitive biases may occur in the appraisal of ambiguous stimuli. These biases may be interpreted either as states open to environmental modulation or as long-lasting phenotypic traits. Finally, we discuss the implications of cognitive bias for stress research.FCT Ph.D. fellowships: (SFRH/BD/79087/2011, SFRH/BD/68528/2010), FCT strategic grant: (PEst-OE/MAR/UI0331/2011)

Mechanisms of social buffering of fear in zebrafish

The supplementary materials such the videos, are not present in the deposit due to incompatibilty of the extension of the files with the repository.Some humans thrive whereas others resign when exposed to threatening situations throughout life. Social support has been identified as an important modulator of these discrepancies in human behaviour, and other social animals also exhibit phenomena in which individuals recover better from aversive events when conspecifics are present - aka social buffering. Here we studied social buffering in zebrafish, by exposing focal fish to an aversive stimulus (alarm substance - AS) either in the absence or presence of conspecific cues. When exposed to AS in the presence of both olfactory (shoal water) and visual (sight of shoal) conspecific cues, focal fish exhibited a lower fear response than when tested alone, demonstrating social buffering in zebrafish. When separately testing each cue's effectiveness, we verified that the visual cue was more effective than the olfactory in reducing freezing in a persistent threat scenario. Finally, we verified that social buffering was independent of shoal size and coincided with a distinct pattern of co-activation of brain regions known to be involved in mammalian social buffering. Thus, this study suggests a shared evolutionary origin for social buffering in vertebrates, bringing new evidence on the behavioural, sensory and neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dificultades para la formación de la jurisprudencia, en especial sobre materias procesales

Aunque la jurisprudencia no es fuente del Derecho, desempeña un papel fundamental en su conformación a través de la función de complementar el ordenamiento jurídico que le asigna el Código civil. Sin embargo, el proceso de formación de la jurisprudencia es complicado por los motivos que en el trabajo se exponen.Although jurisprudence is not a source of law in Spanish Legal System, it plays a fundamental role in its formation through the function, assigned by the Civil Code, of complementing it. However, the process of conforming jurisprudence is complicated by the reasons that are exposed in the work