Sexual violence perpetrated by health professionals

Sexual violence (SV) perpetrated by health professionals concerns any sexual conduct, whether physical or verbal (with or without contact), toward a patient. There has been little scientific study and some disagreements have emerged regarding its definition, which has even been confused with violation of professional boundaries. In this descriptive-exploratory study, we aimed to characterize this phenomenon in the Portuguese context, using a sample of 491 participants who completed an online questionnaire adapted for this study. The results showed that 8.96% of the participants (5.5% indirect victims) suffered SV by a health professional, and the sociodemographic characteristics are very similar to those of SV in other contexts. Thus, after confirming this is not a problem alien to the Portuguese reality, we discuss the practical implications for prevention and intervention with victims

Liderança, satisfação e perceção de rendimento desportivo: estudo com atletas seniores

Este estudo analisa a relação entre os estilos de liderança dos treinadores (tomada de decisão, transacional e transformacional), o modo como os atletas avaliam a liderança dos treinadores (e.g., satisfação com a liderança) e o modo como percecionam o rendimento desportivo ao nível individual e coletivo. Esta análise considerou a importância de variáveis pessoais (e.g., sexo) e desportivas (e.g., divisão competitiva, anos de trabalho com atual treinador e títulos desportivos obtidos com atual treinador) dos atletas. Participaram no estudo 313 atletas de diferentes modalidades com média de idades de 23 anos. Avaliou-se a perceção dos atletas em relação à liderança do treinador, a satisfação face à liderança e a perceção de obtenção de objetivos de rendimento desportivo. Os resultados demonstraram que as dimensões de liderança transformacional foram importantes na explicação da satisfação dos atletas com a liderança dos treinadores bem como na explicação da perceção de rendimento desportivo. As dimensões de liderança foram também importantes para explicar o tempo de permanência dos treinadores na orientação das respetivas equipas bem como o sucesso desportivo obtidos pelos atletas com o mesmo treinador. Em suma, as três formas de liderança revelaram-se importantes para explicar o modo como os atletas avaliam a atividade desportiva.This study analyses the relationship between coaches’ leadership styles (such as decision making, transactional and transformational), athletes’ evaluation of the leadership of their coaches (e.g., satisfaction with leadership) and how athletes evaluate their sport performance both at individual and team levels. This analysis considered the importance of athletes’ personal variables (e.g., gender) and athletes’ sports variables (e.g., competitive level, years of work with current coach and sports titles achieved with current coach). Thus, the study included 313 athletes with an average age of 23 years, practicing different types of sports. It was evaluated the athletes’ perception of coaches’ leadership, the athletes’ satisfaction towards leadership, and the athletes’ perception of sports performance, at individual and team levels. Our findings suggest that transformational leadership dimensions are fundamental to explain athletes’ satisfaction regarding the coaches’ leadership and their perception of sports performance. In addition, leadership variables also explain how long coaches and athletes have been working together and how many sport titles have been won within such timeframe. In sum, the three styles of leadership proved to be decisive to explain how athletes evaluate their sporting activity.Este estudo foi realizado em parte no Centro de Investigação em Psicologia (UID/PSI/01662/2013), Universidade do Minho, e foi financeiramente suportado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia e pelo Ministérios da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, através de fundos nacionais, e cofinanciado pelo FEDER, através do COMPETE2020, no âmbito do acordo Portugal 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)

2,2′-Azobis (2-Amidinopropane) Dihydrochloride Is a Useful Tool to Impair Lung Function in Rats

Recently, several studies have reported that respiratory disease may be associated with an increased production of free radicals. In this context, 2,2’-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) is a free radical-generating compound widely used to mimic the oxidative stress state. We aimed to investigate whether AAPH can generate lung functional, inflammatory, histological and biochemical impairments in the lung. Wistar rats were divided into five groups and instilled with saline solution (714 µL/kg, CTRL group) or different amounts of AAPH (25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, 714 µL/kg, AAPH groups). Seventy-two hours later the animals were anesthetized, paralyzed, intubated and static elastance (Est), viscoelastic component of elastance (ΔE), resistive (ΔP1) and viscoelastic (ΔP2) pressures were measured. Oxidative damage, inflammatory markers and lung morphometry were analyzed. ΔP1 and Est were significantly higher in AAPH100 and AAPH200 than in the other groups. The bronchoconstriction indexes were larger in AAPH groups than in CTRL. The area occupied by collagen and elastic fibers, polymorpho- and mononuclear cells, malondialdehyde and carbonyl groups levels were significantly higher in AAPH200 than in CTRL. In comparison to CTRL, AAPH200 showed significant decrease and increase in the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, respectively. AAPH augmented the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 e TNF-α. Hence, exposure to AAPH caused significant inflammatory alterations and redox imbalance accompanied by altered lung mechanics and histology. Furthermore, we disclosed that exposure to AAPH may represent a useful in vivo tool to trigger lung lesions

Microbiological characterization of food handlers in school canteens

Food-borne substances are a major concern of Public Health, given that food can be the source of various hazards (biological, physical and chemical). Approximately 20% of outbreaks of foodborne illness are associated with the personal hygiene of food handlers. The personal hygiene of manipulators is one of the best ways to block bacterial contamination and its extension to new areas. To evaluate the microbiological profile of the hands of food handlers in school canteens of the northern region of Portugal during 2016 and to verify the efficiency of the hygiene processes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Driver Risk Behavior and Locus of Control

The objectives were: i) to compare the three factors of the Locus of Control scale with the behavior of drivers according to gender, age, type of involvement in accidents; (ii) to verify the relationship between the three factors of the Locus of Control scale (Internal, External-Others and External-Chance) and the four factors of the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (Lapses, Errors, Aggressive Violations, and Ordinary Violations), as well as number of traffic tickets and involvement in accidentsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Competências e habilidades do ensino jurídico: um resgate das aptidões do Bacharel em direito do século XIX / Skills and abilities of the legal education: a rescue of the XIX century law Bachelor’s aptitudes L

Após breve análise histórica da implantação do ensino jurídico nas primeiras escolas de direito do Brasil e do estudo do perfil de habilidades transversais dos estudantes de direito do início do século XIX, o trabalho objetiva abordar como o processo de reestruturação do ensino jurídico se torna deficiente ante a valorização extrema do ensino técnico, a ausência de autonomia do  aluno e o intenso processo de afastamento da criatividade como fator condicionante para o desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivas e sociais de estudantes universitários brasileiros

Eugenol mitigated acute lung but not spermatic toxicity of C60 fullerene emulsion in mice

C60 fullerene (C60) is a nano-pollutant that can damage the respiratory system. Eugenol exhibits significant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. We aimed to investigate the time course of C60 emulsion-induced pulmonary and spermatic harms, as well as the effect of eugenol on C60 emulsion toxicity. The first group of mice (protocol 1) received intratracheally C60 emulsion (1.0 mg/kg BW) or vehicle and were tested at 12, 24, 72 and 96 h (F groups) thereafter. The second group of mice (protocol 2) received intratracheally C60 emulsion or vehicle, 1 h later were gavaged with eugenol (150 mg/kg) or vehicle, and experiments were done 24 h after instillation. Lung mechanics, morphology, redox markers, cytokines and epididymal spermatozoa were analyzed. Protocol 1: Tissue damping (G) and elastance (H) were significantly higher in F24 than in others groups, except for H in F72. Morphological and inflammatory parameters were worst at 24 h and subsequently declined until 96 h, whereas redox and spermatic parameters worsened over the whole period. Eugenol eliminated the increase in G, H, cellularity, and cytokines, attenuated oxidative stress induced by C60 exposure, but had no effect on sperm. Hence, exposure to C60 emulsion deteriorated lung morphofunctional, redox and inflammatory characteristics and increased the risk of infertility. Furthermore, eugenol avoided those changes, but did not prevent sperm damage

Human-umbilical cord matrix mesenchymal cells improved left ventricular contractility independently of infarct size in swine myocardial infarction with reperfusion

Funding Information: This work was funded by: i) national funds through FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the scope of the Cardiovascular R&D Center - UnIC (UIDB/00051/2020 and UIDP/00051/2020); ii) “la Caixa” Banking Foundation and FCT under the project code LCF/PR/HP17/52190002”; iii) the QREN project 2013/30196; and iv) the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), under the Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Program and National Funds through FCT [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030985]. RNG and TLL were funded by the FCT individual fellowships [SFRH/BD/144490/2019] and [PD/BD/127997/2016], respectively. Funding sources had no interference in the design of the study, study governance, data collection and analysis, nor in manuscript writing or its scientific and intellectual content. Publisher Copyright: 2023 Raposo, Cerqueira, Leite, Moreira-Costa, Laundos, Miranda, Mendes-Ferreira, Coelho, Gomes, Pinto-do-Ó, Nascimento, Lourenço, Cardim and Leite-Moreira.Background: Human umbilical cord matrix-mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCM-MSC) have demonstrated beneficial effects in experimental acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Reperfusion injury hampers myocardial recovery in a clinical setting and its management is an unmet need. We investigated the efficacy of intracoronary (IC) delivery of xenogeneic hUCM-MSC as reperfusion-adjuvant therapy in a translational model of AMI in swine. Methods: In a placebo-controlled trial, pot-belied pigs were randomly assigned to a sham-control group (vehicle-injection; n = 8), AMI + vehicle (n = 12) or AMI + IC-injection (n = 11) of 5 × 105 hUCM-MSC/Kg, within 30 min of reperfusion. AMI was created percutaneously by balloon occlusion of the mid-LAD. Left-ventricular function was blindly evaluated at 8-weeks by invasive pressure-volume loop analysis (primary endpoint). Mechanistic readouts included histology, strength-length relationship in skinned cardiomyocytes and gene expression analysis by RNA-sequencing. Results: As compared to vehicle, hUCM-MSC enhanced systolic function as shown by higher ejection fraction (65 ± 6% vs. 43 ± 4%; p = 0.0048), cardiac index (4.1 ± 0.4 vs. 3.1 ± 0.2 L/min/m2; p = 0.0378), preload recruitable stroke work (75 ± 13 vs. 36 ± 4 mmHg; p = 0.0256) and end-systolic elastance (2.8 ± 0.7 vs. 2.1 ± 0.4 mmHg*m2/ml; p = 0.0663). Infarct size was non-significantly lower in cell-treated animals (13.7 ± 2.2% vs. 15.9 ± 2.7%; Δ = −2.2%; p = 0.23), as was interstitial fibrosis and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in the remote myocardium. Sarcomere active tension improved, and genes related to extracellular matrix remodelling (including MMP9, TIMP1 and PAI1), collagen fibril organization and glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis were downregulated in animals treated with hUCM-MSC. Conclusion: Intracoronary transfer of xenogeneic hUCM-MSC shortly after reperfusion improved left-ventricular systolic function, which could not be explained by the observed extent of infarct size reduction alone. Combined contributions of favourable modification of myocardial interstitial fibrosis, matrix remodelling and enhanced cardiomyocyte contractility in the remote myocardium may provide mechanistic insight for the biological effect.publishersversionpublishe