Experiências em tribunal e representações sobre a justiça: o caso das testemunhas

Dissertação de mestrado em Crime, Diferença e DesigualdadeO presente projeto procura analisar as experiências das testemunhas em tribunal e as suas representações sobre os tribunais e a justiça, nomeadamente os sentimentos e obstáculos que enfrentam quando interagem com o tribunal. O trabalho está estruturado em três importantes capítulos. No primeiro capítulo, procurei esclarecer como se caracteriza a relação entre a população e os tribunais no nosso país. No segundo capítulo, aborda-se a importância da prova testemunhal e a sua aplicação na justiça portuguesa. No terceiro e último capítulo, são analisados estudos já realizados sobre o tema e apresentados os resultados da minha própria investigação. As metodologias eleitas para a concretização da investigação foram a observação direta de julgamentos, para identificar os procedimentos dirigidos às testemunhas quando estas prestam depoimento, e a realização de inquéritos de opinião e satisfação e de entrevistas semiestruturadas às testemunhas. Posso, desde já, adiantar que, entre os principais obstáculos que as testemunhas enfrentam em tribunal, se encontram os longos tempos de espera, interações problemáticas com arguidos, ansiedade, nervosismo e preocupação que decorrem, quer do desconhecimento dos procedimentos relacionados com o processo de testemunhar, quer do desconhecimento dos direitos e deveres perante o tribunal. Com este estudo, espero contribuir para um aprofundamento da compreensão sobre as experiências e representações sociais de quem é convocado para testemunhar em tribunal. Os resultados apurados podem ser úteis e esclarecedores, tanto para o público em geral (nomeadamente, para uma maior informação daqueles que, no futuro, sejam chamados a testemunhar e desconheçam esse processo), como para os profissionais judiciários. Com base nos resultados obtidos, apresento recomendações que visam apoiar a construção de soluções que permitam dissipar as apreensões e dificuldades de muitas testemunhas e auxiliar o trabalho dos atores judiciários na efetivação da justiça.This project seeks to analyze the experiences of the witnesses in court and their representations of the courts and the justice system, in particular the feelings and challenges that people face when they interact with the courts. The study is divided into three major chapters. In the first chapter I analyse the characteristics of the relationship between the courts and the general population in Portugal. The second chapter discusses the importance of the testimony in the implementation of justice and the way it is regulated by the Portuguese legal system. In the third and final chapter I review existing case-studies on the topic and present the results of my own research. The methods chosen for the implementation of the research were the direct observation of judicial trials, in order to identify the procedures that are directed at witnesses when they provide testimony, and the conduction of opinion and satisfaction surveys and of semi-structured interviews with witnesses. From what I was able to observe, I can already state that the main challenges faced by witnesses in court procedures are the long waiting times, the sometimes problematic interaction with defendants, anxiety, nervousness and the insecurity of not knowing the procedures nor their rights and duties vis-à-vis the court. With this study I hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of the experiences and social representations of those who are summoned to testify in court. The results obtained can be useful and enlightening both to the general public (contributing to inform those who may be called as witnesses in the future) and to the legal professionals. Based on the results of my research, I put forward some recommendations to serve as basis for the adoption of solutions that may dispel the apprehensions and difficulties of many witnesses and assist the work of judicial actors in the pursuit of justice

Neudesin is involved in anxiety behavior: structural and neurochemical correlates

Neudesin (also known as neuron derived neurotrophic factor, Nenf) is a scarcely studied putative non-canonical neurotrophic factor. In order to understand its function in the brain, we performed an extensive behavioral characterization (motor, emotional, and cognitive dimensions) of neudesin-null mice. The absence of neudesin leads to an anxious-like behavior as assessed in the elevated plus maze (EPM), light/dark box (LDB) and novelty suppressed feeding (NSF) tests, but not in the acoustic startle (AS) test. This anxious phenotype is associated with reduced dopaminergic input and impoverished dendritic arborizations in the dentate gyrus granule neurons of the ventral hippocampus. Interestingly, shorter dendrites are also observed in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) of neudesin-null mice. These findings lead us to suggest that neudesin is a novel relevant player in the maintenance of the anxiety circuitry.This work is supported by a grant from FCT (PTDC/SAU-OSM/104475/2008) under POCTI-COMPETE funds. Ashley Novais, Ana Catarina Ferreira, Ana David-Pereira and Filipa L. Campos are recipients of doctoral fellowships and Fernanda Marques is a recipient of postdoctoral fellowship from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal. We acknowledge Merck Serono for providing the neudesin-null mouse strain. We are thankful to Despina Papasava and Vasileios Kafetzopoulos for the assistance given in the HPLC analysis of neurotransmitters

Chronic stress disrupts neural coherence between cortico-limbic structures

The authors would like to thank Rui Gomes for the help in the application of electrophysio- logical techniques and Luís Martins and Miguel Carneiro for the histological preparations.Chronic stress impairs cognitive function, namely on tasks that rely on the integrity of cortico-limbic networks. To unravel the functional impact of progressive stress in cortico-limbic networks we measured neural activity and spectral coherences between the ventral hippocampus (vHIP) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats subjected to short term stress (STS) and chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). CUS exposure consistently disrupted the spectral coherence between both areas for a wide range of frequencies, whereas STS exposure failed to trigger such effect. The chronic stress-induced coherence decrease correlated inversely with the vHIP power spectrum, but not with the mPFC power spectrum, which supports the view that hippocampal dysfunction is the primary event after stress exposure. Importantly, we additionally show that the variations in vHIP-to-mPFC coherence and power spectrum in the vHIP correlated with stress-induced behavioral deficits in a spatial reference memory task. Altogether, these findings result in an innovative readout to measure, and follow, the functional events that underlie the stress-induced reference memory impairments.The authors work was supported by FEDER funds through Operational program for competivity factors—COMPETE and by national funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) fellowships (João Filipe Oliveira by SFRH/BPD/66151/2009; Luís Ricardo Jacinto by SFRH/BD/40459/2007), a Marie Curie Fellowship (João Filipe Oliveira by PIEF-GA-2010-273936) and Grants from BIAL Foundation (138/2008 to João José Cerqueira and 61/2010 to João Filipe Oliveira and Vanessa Morais Sardinha) and FCT (João Filipe Oliveira, Ana Lima, and Ana Filipa Oliveira by PTDC/SAU- NSC/118194/2010; Nuno Sérgio Dias, Luís Ricardo Jacinto, João José Cerqueira, and Nuno Sousa by FCT/PTDC/SAU- ENB/118383/2010; Nuno Sérgio Dias, Daniela Silva Ferreira, Joana Santos Reis, João José Cerqueira, and Nuno Sousa by FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674)

Visceral Dissemination of Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Kidney Transplant Recipient

Intracellular protozoan of the genus Leishmania, endemic in the Mediterranean basin, are the cause of cutaneous (CL), mucocutaneous (MCL), and visceral leishmaniasis (VL). A 75-year-old woman was admitted nine years after a second kidney transplant (KT), due to persistent pancytopenia and fever. She presented edema and erythema of the nose in the last two years and an exophytic nodular lesion located on the left arm, with areas of peripheral necrosis and central ulceration in the last 18 months. A bone marrow biopsy revealed features compatible with Leishmania amastigotes, and polymerase chain reaction test (PCR) for Leishmania infantum was positive. Moreover, biopsy and PCR for L. infantum of the cutaneous lesion on the patient’s left arm and nose and PCR from peripheral blood were positive. Thus, a diagnosis of CL, MCL, and VL was made, and liposomal amphotericin B was initiated, but the patient had an unfavorable outcome and died. This is the first report of a KT recipient presenting with the entire spectrum of leishmaniasis. In Portugal, this infection is rare—so a high degree of clinical suspicion is required for its diagnosis, especially in endemic regions, as visceral leishmaniasis is a potentially life-threatening infection